Two weeks down...

As of today, I have been in South Africa for two weeks, and although I have yet to even start my main job here, I have already experienced and been challenged by a lot. For the last few weeks I have been working for World Changers Academy, volunteering at Shepherd’s Keep Home for Abandoned Babies, writing law school essays, studying for the LSAT, and trying to survive in a house that has 30 people living in it. Each day has brought a new challenge, a new emotion, and a new lesson. Although I have enjoyed my time so far, I am greatly looking forward to next Wednesday when I begin living and working at Lily of the Valley, because I am desperately longing for some routine and consistency.

Living in a foreign country by myself has allowed me a lot of time alone with my thoughts. This is the first time in my life that I have had to face the frustrations, curiosities, and thrills of a completely different culture alone, with no one else to turn to for reflection. It has been a huge time of growth in my life as I have wrestled with quandaries of faith, politics, and culture on my own. Not to mention, I have endured much ridicule for my strange “Yankee” accent with no one to back me up that it is indeed “y’all” not “you all.” Yet through this struggle, I have learned to cling to the foundational principles of my faith, as without those I truly would be on my own. In truth, I am thankful for this time of inward struggle and discovery, as I am confident that perseverance through challenge yields strength. If these first two weeks are any indication, I am confident a great deal more personal growth derived from trials is in my foreseeable future.

Today was somewhat of a paradox for me. I woke up to President Mbeki’s announcement that he would resign as South Africa’s president after allegations of political manipulation from his equally corrupt political opponent Zuma. The government, which has been in shambles for years, is finally beginning to show its true colors on the international stage. If something of this magnitude had happened in our country, the nation would have been in an uproar. Yet in this country that has become disillusioned and apathetic towards the status of their government due to years and years of corruption, no one seems to have even taken notice that Mbeki has left. Frustrated at the hopelessness that seems to be hanging in the air here, I drove to Shepherd’s Keep Orphanage, the NGO with whom I have partnered the past two summers. There I held a tiny three-week-old baby, who had been found abandoned in a bush on the side of a highway. Although her chest wheezed with each breath from a life-threatening infection that has set in, I couldn’t help but find hope in each labored breath. She has a fight left in her. There is a reason she was delivered to this high-care center, instead of dying on the side of the road along with the 2,000 other babies who are abandoned in this province each month. As I looked at her I realized that the work that is being done in the NGOs, churches, charter schools, and others who have joined the cause is not in vain. There is still hope for her and the rest in her generation that things can be turned around. I am so privileged to get to work with such innocence, because I am becoming convinced that it may be the only way to escape the ever-growing disillusionment festering here.

In the book “Mountains Beyond Moutains,” (which I highly recommend you reading) the author tells of an old Haitian proverb, which essentially says that beyond the mountains there are more mountains, meaning that when we overcome one obstacle there is certain to be another equally as challenging obstacle waiting for us on the other side. At first glance this may seem like a depressing thought, but the author goes on to explain that victory then may not necessarily come in the defeat of the obstacle, but may instead come in the perseverance. We succeed because we refuse to give up trying. It is with this mindset that I am excited to begin working at Lily of the Valley Children’s village next week.

Look for more substantive and detailed posts in the weeks to come as I get to know the children and stories that make up Lily of the Valley…