Goodbyes, Painting, Clinics, VBS, and Possible Returns.

I have less than one week left here. In fact I have 6 days left. 4 more days until I leave Opi, the village I am currently leaving in, and travel to Lagos while I wait for my flight. Can you feel my heart breaking? Because I can.

Goodbyes suck. I have decided I just don't like them at all. 

I can't wait to see my wonderful friends and family! I am so looking forward to the mass amounts of hugs, laughs and stories waiting for me in the States. But I don't want to leave the mass amounts of hugs, laughs, stories that are here for me.

We got some visitors this past week. A pastor, doctor, two college students and the Starlings daughter Anna. While they have been here we painted the boys flat. It is half blue and half red, for Chelsea and Manchester United. The team logos were just finished yesterday. The boys love it so much! For the past few days there have been an endless yells of “Manu for lifffffeee! Chelsea for deathhhhh!” And of course “Chelsea for liffffeee! Manu for deathhhhhhhh!” They also painted the main room in the girls flat, just light blue.

We have done two medical clinics. I got to go to one. I worked as the pharmacist with Bianca, one of the college students who came for the week. It was exhausting, but I enjoyed it. But I now know for sure, God did not create me to be a pharmacist.

VBS is this week. It ends today. It has been going really well. I am in games with Chuks. The kids loved Red Rover, and Tug of War best. The little kids are the hardest to do anything with. The age groups turned into 1 year to 5 years. Do you know how hard it is to get a 15 kids under 5 years old to play the same game? It's nearly impossible.

Tomorrow we are going to hike to a waterfall. It will be me second time to go there. It is sooo beautiful, but there are these bats that are everywhere. And I don't really like them, at all. But I'm excited!

The kids have been asking me when I am coming back. So I am thinking about planning on coming back for at least a short time next summer. I just don't know how long I can go without seeing their sweet little faces.

Well I should roll. I'll see your lovely faces next week! And I am pretty excited about it. I hope you get ready for story time! :]

The box.

I have two weeks left here. And goodness I just don't think it's enough time. I am already making plans on how and when to come back next summer. I just don't know how I ma going to go an entire year without seeing these sweet little faces.

Ever since the kids heard my parents were sending them a box they had been asking almost everyday "Brie! Will the box come today?!" I always told them it will come with Anna. They knew which day Anna would get here, so they had been counting down. 

Well Anna arrived yesterday, so THE BOX got here last night. We called them into my room one at a time so the others were lined up outside of our flat. Kara said it correctly when she said “It's like 12 year old girls waiting for a Jonas Brother's concert.” When some of the kids came in they couldn't even sit still they were so excited. They all left beaming. My favorite might have to be Baby Joy. She is 2 years old. I had my mom send her some dress up shoes, because she is ALWAYS wearing shoes that don't belong to her. So before she walked in our room I put the shoes on the floor. She walked in smiled and simply put them on and began to walk around without saying a word. But as soon as the shoe touched her foot she lit up. We had some trouble getting her to sit still enough to show her the new clothes and toys. She was soooo focused on those shoes.

The kids played with all their new toys all night. And last night for prayer about 5 of them came in wearing their new clothes. They looked SO cute! Good job Mom and Dad!

I don't have much time, so I'm sorry this is so short.

My flight lands in DFW in 14 days. I can't wait to see your beautiful smiling faces. I love you!  

For Miss. Kara Rainwater.

Well I have two more weeks left here. And it's just weird. Kara and I talk a lot about what we are going to miss. And how we are going to go through withdrawals without each other. I mean, spending almost every hour about 5 feet away from each other for 2 months and our beds are about 5 inches apart. Then we will suddenly be a few hours away. WEIRD.

I think I will dedicate this blog to Kara Morgan Rainwater. [Isn't that a cool last name?]

Well for those who don't know I met Kara last summer at Mission Arlington. She worked with Brittany and I for two weeks. She read something about me going to Africa on facebook and called to ask me about it. And then BAM! She was coming!

I'm so glad out of all the people who could have come with me, it was her. We get along really well. Like really well. I don't think we have had any problem at all. Our joke for this is “Well if I have to sleep a few inches away from you, I don't want to have to worry in my sleep.” But really it's just because she's stinking awesome. I LOVE our late night talks about what we are learning while we are hear, what we have experienced with God, and just life in general.

I am so thankful that God knew what He was doing when He brought her with me. I'm pretty sure I would have gone crazy without her. It's just good to have someone to sit and go over the day's events and to remind me of things I have to do.

I'm going to miss her terribly. Seriously. I may have to call her like 50 times a day just to tell her some random thought, joke, or story. I'm sure there will be many trips to Tyler to go visit her.

Side note: We have been painting for the past few days from when we wake up to the point we fall asleep. No exaggeration there. There has been nonstop painting. The flat and the staircase look great, but smell terrible right now. Our next painting project is the flat the boys stay in. One wall will be Manchester United, and another Chelsea. I'm pretty excited about it! Manchester and Chelsea are the two favorite soccer teams around here. Randomly you can here someone yell, “Manu for lifffffe!” And then someone will reply “Chelsea for lifffffe!” So their flat should be too legit to quit.

Oh, tonight Kara and I ate some lizard. This thing was a pretty beastly thing, it looked like a small komodo dragon . It was about a foot and half long, at least. Some of the boys killed it on the way back from the field. They cut it up and put it in a pot. Kara and I ate part of the tail, I thought it tasted a lot like fish. So add lizard to my list of foods I ate while in Nigeria.

There have been many times when I have thought in class, “You know I'll never use that in Africa.” One of those times was when I made an interactive powerpoint in my computers in the classroom class. Well just now I had about 10 kids around my computer looking at my little zoo.

I felt so accomplished that I was teaching kids with my own homework assignment. And they enjoyed it! Man if I ever felt like a teacher it was then!

Well I'm super tired, and we have more painting to do tomorrow! So goodnight!

One month left?

I love skype. I got to talk to some of my wonderful family the past few days. And I am so thankful for it! Man I didn't even realize how much I missed them! And the kids LOVED getting to see some of my family. They jump into the frame, seriously. Some of them jumped.

Well I have less than a month left. And I just can't believe it. I mean, I've lived in Africa for over a month already? Huh? I keep thinking sooner or later I'm going to wake up in my bed and find out it has been a dream. And everyday I thank God that I wake up still in Nigeria and find out it's not a dream. It is in fact reality.

I have been working on my nursing skills. I wont go into great detail on here, when I told Darby he was making faces so I'll spare you some details. But I'm pretty excited about it. I'm learning random things about how to clean wounds, and how to correctly treat things I have never seen before. I LOVE IT. Man is it weird I love this stuff so much? Kara thinks so. I jump at every chance to help Bev take care of someone.

The other night I cleaned a boy's big wound on his ankle. He got hit by a car back in January and still has a large burn on his ankle. I had watched Bev clean and out a bandage on it a few times. And she let me take the reins. I don't like knowing I'm causing someone pain, and the poor boy is in a great deal of pain when his leg gets cleaned. I had to keep reminding him that if I was a doctor I would not be so nice about it. Doctors here are not known for bed side manner. Bev was with someone who had a broken leg getting an X-ray and was crying because well, they had a broken leg. And the doctor yelled, “SHUT UP! Are you a baby?” And I have been told several stories of someone being told their family member died and the doctor told them to stop crying.

The point of that was I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. But I felt bad that he was in so much pain.

I help in Children's Church every Sunday. But this week they started a class for the kids 7 and under that is separate from the older kids. I was in there, and I loved it of course! The lesson was about creation. I made up motions for each day so the kids could remember on what day what was created.

During church there is a time for testimonies about what God has been doing in people's lives. For the second time now someone brought a chicken as an offering. During a baby dedication the family brought a chicken as well. Kara and I are always thrown off just a bit by it.

Oh hey I got African clothes! And I really do love them! I give Tochi, staff member, a hard time for being so picky about what kind of fabric I buy for myself to wear. But when it comes down it, he picked some good stuff. I guess the boy's got taste. 

Here's a picture of Ugo and I for ya! I hope you enjoy!

Answers.

I have been asked a lot of questions by my friends and family about my stay here. So I figured I'd answer the most common here so all of you can know too!

One of the most common questions is...[insert drum roll] How's the food?- Well I live with Americans, so we eat a lot of American food. We make tortillas at least once a week. We eat A LOT of rice and beans. The Nigerian food I eat the most is yams, fried roasted, and mixed in our gina beans. The strangest things I have eaten is Aku, fried termites and a piece of chicken heart. The termites are different than our own. They are much bigger, and can fly. I ate two Aku because the first I ate didn't have wings and I was told the sweetest ones are with the wings.

Another common question, What time is it there?- For those in Texas, look at the time and add 6 hours.

Are you having fun?- OH. MY. GOODNESS. Yes I'm having fun! I love it here SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! I love everything, minus no cheese and not much meat... The people are so great, the kids are amazing. I love learning about the culture and trying to learn the language!

Joy. She lives up to her name, sometimes.

Which brings me to my next one. Are you learning the language?- I'm trying. I know some words, and can understand a few more. All the people enjoy hearing an onyocha, white person, speaking Igbo. And the staff really gets a kick out of my trying to repeat after them. It's hard to learn Igbo because thye have sounds that we don't have in English, and my English brain tries to make them that way. The kids also LOVE to try to teach me. One thing that makes it hard to learn is the different dialects. I live in Opi, so there is an Opi dialect. Nsukka is a nearby town, which has it's own dialect. And then there is standard  Igbo.

What are you learning?- Well! I'm learning a few things. But the one that I think is the most life changing is that this is where I'm supposed to be. This is exactly where God wants me to be, and not just for the summer. He has used this summer to show me what I knew He told me. Africa is where my heart is, Africa is where my home will be. I can't say 100% that it will be in Nigeria. But it is very possible. I have also been learning, and thinking a lot about religion. Religion is dumb. Why did it get so tangled in our relationship? When did going to church become more important than loving our Savior? And why don't we do anything? Do you know what God says about religion in James? “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep the oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 This is the only kind of religion I want in my life.

What do you miss the most?- Well other than people of course. I miss sleeping with the blankets my mom made me. Every night I wish I had one. I miss my church. Which is funny to say after the question above. But I miss the worship there. The worship here fills my heart with joy because it's just so beautiful to hear praise in another language. But it's hard to truly worship too when I don't know what is being said.

See what I mean about Simdat's smile?

What are you going to miss the most?- The kids. Every single one of them. Kara and I randomly sit and talk about how we can't picture our lives without them. I'll miss giving two little boys a bath at around 7 pm. I'll miss waking up at 3 am to take Terry to the bathroom so he doesn't wet the bed, and I'll miss giving him a bath every morning because he still wet the bed. I'll miss Dajan's hugs. I miss Tokshi sitting in my lap. I'll miss Jurbe holding my hand. I'll miss Simdat's beautifully sweet smile. I'll miss playing at the field and arguing what time we will go home. I'll miss the giggles. I'll miss the nightly prayer and song time with the kids. I have 30 days left to love these kids so much it hurts me, and I plan on it. I could go on forever, but it's killing me now so I'll stop. I'm going to miss Kara so much! I can't picture waking up without her next to me. I have no idea what I am going to do when I have a day without being with her 24 hours a day. For those who will be with me, you are going to have to deal with my massive withdrawals. 

Are you married yet?- No I'm not. But some of the kids have informed me we are getting married. And one day in the market one man I walked by said “Onycha! I love youuuu! Marry me!” I just smiled and kept walking. And then we walked by him later and he said, “I knew you would be back! I love you!” And a girl in the market asked me to marry her brother. I politely turned both offers down. But I have 22 days to follow in family footsteps;]

This picture takes my breath away.

Also I was not asked this but I wanted to share it with you. I now have braids. How did they braid my short hair you may ask. Well I have extensions in. So my hair went from being short to like a foot longer in a matter of two long hours. No, it didn't hurt. It just gave me a small headache. My goal is to have them in for 4 days, we will see if I can make it.

I hope you all enjoy the 4^th of July! We are going to celebrate here by playing some patriotic songs and having a roast for dinner I think.

As always I love you! And I loved reading your comments on my last blog. Y'all are so encouraging!