Weekly Update #10

So this past week was a week of challenge; a week of exhaustion; a week of sickness; a week of celebration.
As the program continued, we had many ups and downs. There have been kids who started bleeding and started hurting or got hurt--the IcePacks we got for the coolers have gone to good use otherwise.
We've improvised through activities, and played Dodgeball one thousand times (although I have to say, I have not played Dodgeball once). Having such a spectrum of ages really changes the way the program is run--we have mostly kids going into third grade and under, but they all seem so much older. I think age stereotypes melts away when you learn names and faces.
This past week, I went temporarily insane, to match the lack of being prepared to tie dye, and feeling like there wasn't enough staff, and worrying about food, and tutoring work, and people.
Tuesday wasn't such a great day. I ate some green beans that were in the free lunches for the kids, and around five o'clock, I started feeling nauseous, eventually went home, and then later puked for the first time in seven and a half years. (and then again, and again, and again.) After that, I was sick of being sick, and I went to sleep. I felt better the next day, and have felt better for the rest of the week, but I don't think I've gotten my hydration back to where I wanted it to be, which sucks in the morning when I just need to get up and go, and I feel the need to be watered.
On Wednesday, we were going to go to Camp Deerpark, but then there were more staff that were going to go than kids, and it was going to rain, and so we cancelled the program, and got the day off. Which was absolutely perfect in going with the fact that I had been sick the day before--my mom told me I was contagious and shouldn't go to work. Unfortunately, there were people in my house all day, and I had to seem like I was completely healthy to match their output of energy.
My landlord, bless her heart, thinks that if you leave the fan on when you aren't in the house, that it will cause the house to burn down. But on the days when it was 100 degrees, and I would come home and the house was a sauna, there was no way I was going to leave the A/C and the fan off when I was gone. When you come home and the house is 92 degrees, there's something wrong.
Anyway, so she asked me if I had a learning disability, because I couldn't seem to "grasp" that I have to turn the fan off. My learning disability is that logic. I don't understand it. And, unfortunately, it is socially too late to ask her, because she will think I am starting a revolution in her house.
Thursday was survived, though the morning was stressful--we have been averaging twenty-five to thirty kids in the morning, and ten to twelve in the afternoon. We tie-dye shirts with them on Tuesday (I washed them all at my house on Wednesday), and on Thursday, we painted them with fabric paints.
Once Thursday evening came around, I had to skip Discipleship. I was leaving in the early morning for D.C., and had just gotten over being sick.
Friday morning --2:15AM, I woke up and Dan came over and picked me up and drove me to the Bus Depot. The most hilarious part of the morning was the fact that we were at a stand-still. At 3:00. On the high way. WE saw all the people who were still out, all the people who continued their day like it was light outside.
I barely made my bus. There was nowhere to check my bag, so I just put an ID on it, and then put it in the pile of bags that where checked, and I prayed that they would load it up like everyone's. I sat next to a middle-aged man named Jeff, who was going to Charlotte to start a better life for himself and the family he was leaving behind. He shared his Jolly Ranchers, grapes, and bought me a Fanta and a bag of chips (which I saved to give to Zach later). He was asking about the book I was reading, "Jesus for President", and said, "Oh, so you are into religion?" I said, "Yeah, Christianity." It was quiet for a little while, but later he started talking about what faith he'd grown up with, and how open his parents were, but how he wanted to start going back to church once he got to Charlotte. I'm praying that he does.
When I got to D.C., I was swept away with familiarity, and was so happy to be in a place where I felt like I could navigate myself.
I got off the Metro at Brookland, and then waited for Emily under the overpass. It's amazing what being in a city longer term does to you. I was completely comfortable doing that, whereas one year ago, I would have probably stuck as close to the station as I could. Emily got off the train and we walked and talked our way to the WCSC house. It was bizarre but wonderful to be back there! I felt at home (and played the piano for almost an hour), but felt no obligations. I had a great conversation with Kim, got to see my garden, ran into a couple current WCSCers (they were upstairs) and enjoyed half of an Everything Bagel with Emily before she left to bring a future student out for their interviews.
Around 12:30, the Hazletts arrived, picked me up, and we all headed to Dulles! It was a hot ride, there being no A/C in the car, but it was fine for me--I'd been in a cold building for the past three hours.
We arrived at Dulles a little earlier than the flight was supposed to come in, but then we waited around until an hour and a half after it landed for Zach to come out of customs. It was so awesome to surprise him. He didn't know that his family was coming, though he thought I might.

On my ride home from Harrisburg on the Amtrak, I took the time to reflect about my day with Zach, and here it is. Yes, I am long winded, I know.

What a whirlwind. I just spent a day with Zach. Just twenty-four hours. He’s home from Africa—Here to stay! Thank God for that. I don’t think I could take another year of him being gone. Props to those people who send their fiancées on mission trips, I couldn’t do it. He’s changed, but we can still pick up where we left off. I’m so thankful for that. I can handle this feeling of knowing he’s home now! Even if I can’t talk to him everyday, knowing that he’s just a few hours drive away, rather than a day/s flight away gives me so much peace. He seems to have adjusted well to America so far. Occasionally, he makes an observation of things—like the idea of a grocery store—with everything you need—like four TVs (in the store)—all being in the same place at the same time.
The Hazlett’s came and picked me up at WCSC, with all my stuff, and we headed off to Dulles. We got there early, and we remembered that Zach and his group had to go through customs to come back—so then the wait added to be more than an hour. Noraa had called me “Grace Hazlett”, saying that I was going to marry Zach, and I had accidently touched Taylor’s butt, so she said that it was because I wanted to touch Zach’s butt, and she was going to tell him that when he got there.
I was just starting to fall asleep while waiting for him (Waking up at 2:15 to get to Manhattan at 3:45am, and still getting stuck in traffic is quite annoying. But I slept pretty well, had a great seatmate, with whom I had a great conversation with about life, the universe and Everything (which is, God). He also shared his Jolly Ranchers, grapes, and bought me a bag of chips and a Fanta (didn’t know I was vegan. (But the guy sitting across the aisle from me did—he saw the PETA stickers on the back of my Macbook and asked me if I was in DC for the Animal Rights Convention.)), and Zach got off the airplane, out of customs, and all of a sudden he was there—same clothes, just more worn, and a little more covered in dirt! He was wearing the hat that he wore to Honduras, and looked like he had shaved his head again, and was bald. His face was plastered with a super smile and we could tell that we’d surprised him. Earlier in the day, I had texted Marie and told her what I was up to (because before, it was TOP SECRET), she reminded me that I should let his mom get the first hug. So I did. I let his entire family envelope him, before he smothered me with a wonderful losing-your-balance-hug. I was freaking out in my head—I was nervous and I had had too much caffeine earlier in the day—and was in complete shock, and I couldn’t stop looking at him! He’d changed so much—and looked the same at the same time. There was more hair on his face (and his chest, as I learned when everyone was swimming later). There was a lot less hair on his head (something I hope stays that way for a long time.)
His teammates were Africanized (which meant, for most of them—they lost weight). They looked relived and ready to be taken care of by someone else. (Which, for another tangent, is one thing that I loved the most about this trip.)
We swept him away from his team, and took him into the van (which, though un air-conditioned, was a wonderful trip because we’d all been frozen in airport for two hours), and then went to a grocery store, to pick up some stuff for dinner. Zach was in a bit of a shock. He kept looking around and because he could see everything that he needed it was so bizarre. He said that there was nothing like that store within a hundred miles of where he was. When he saw four monitors stacked together, he exclaimed—four TVs in the same place—so bizarre.
It was so wonderful to hear his motivation and energy. I have this feeling that he was ready to get going with what he wanted to do—either with school, or with work—he said he wanted to get a job. He wanted to get a motorcycle—and I think that is a great idea. I can’t wait until he does. I want to ride it with him!
After that, we headed to a National Park that was on the way to Harrisburg. Denice and Toby grilled food, I ate a lot of Dolma, and we all hung out around the park. There, Zach presented everyone with their gifts. When he started doing this, I could see how much he had thought through everything, as he gave everyone their gifts. He wanted each of us to experience a little bit of what he did in the past month. And the love that he expressed through that made me feel overwhelmed with the great beauty of the fact that Zach really does love me. More than I can expect. I was the last person that he gave the gifts to.
Zach had given everyone a little package that you make tea with, promising to make it with them, because it’s a two person thing, and because it makes about three shot cups per person. I received one of those. He gave each person three pieces of gum that they had in Guinea Bissau. There were two packages of crackers. One was a type that you were supposed to have with the tea, and one was a cookie with some Nutella in the middle. Both of these had some milk products in them, and Zach didn’t give them to me (which is why I assumed I didn’t get any. Later, he told me that he got hungry in customs and ate some, but when I told him I wouldn’t have been able to eat them anyway, he was relived.) Zach gave seashells (that were completely gorgeous) to Jaynie and Noraa, from the seashore that they went to in Guinea Bissau. He gave Aleks two iguana feet and two snake skins of snakes that he had killed. Both of them were poisonous.
Zach found some awesome sculptures to give as gifts to a couple people. My favorite was the tiger—it was more like a jaguar in shape, and had teeth that were probably from an iguana’s foot. He gave two pieces of artwork to Taylor and his mom. They were small paintings from a local artist in the area, but Zach picked them out because he felt like they represented Africa the best. He got Noraa a teenager sized wrap-around skirt, telling her that the girls in Africa are given the same ones, and roll them down to the right length, and then they keep them, and grow into them. He gave Jaynie a skirt also, with an additional hair scarf to just wrap around her head, like the women wrapped around their heads when they had to carry things like water on them. He got his father an entire outfit in a teal green—including a cute hat to go with the big shirt and short pants. It was so beautiful.
Then he gave me my gifts. He laid out the tea and the gum, and then reached in and handed me a necklace—not too fancy, with mostly black beads, with a design where the middle was—and a slight heart on the middle bead. It’s the first piece of jewelry I’ve ever received from a guy—and it means so much to me. And then he unfolded a wrap skirt for me—the same pattern as Noraa’s, and proceeded to help wrap me in it. There was a ruffle/ripple on the edge. Then he pulled out a shirt to go with it, which he helped me put on. It had three buttons and long sleeves. Zach said it was custom-made, and that he designed it. I was a bit incredulous—how did he know my size. “I’m the same size as you, Grace. “ Ah, I had forgotten. I had been so nervous that he was going to get something that he was going to get me something that I wouldn’t like, and would be disappointed with, but I knew that it was going to be alright when he started.
When we got back to HDC, Zach went in, and although there was a bit of a fiasco with Denice’s Ipod being dropped in the ice bucket, and a slippage of Apples to Apples cards all over the backseat (and Zach accidently yelling “Jeweli!” instead of “Grace!”), we brought him in, I said “Hello” to a couple of people—Kaitlyn, who was on Zach’s team in the beginning, but had to be resituated when health problems stopped her from going to Africa, was back for debriefing at the same time. Everyone was slightly surprised to see me there (especially the HDC staff, because they knew I was doing a GO assignment in Flushing), but understood at the same time. We drove to the Comfort Inn, and I got to sleep in the adult room (and fell right asleep, for that matter,) and was on the sofa bed—which was more comfortable than the bed in my house at Flushing. This is very sad.
We all woke up late—a little before ten o’clock, and ate breakfast at the hotel. Toby and I both had a couple spilling moments, but we learned that they offer coffee lids for a reason, and were thankful for the napkins that were also provided. Then Toby, Denice, and I all left for HDC to pick up Zach to come spend the day with us. We all changed into swimsuits and went in the itty-bitty pool that the hotel provided, and made the best of it, I should say. We played with the underwater camera, made as big of waves as you can in a square pool, and did handstands and somersaults to our delights.
We had lunch—I had the rest of the dolma, a salad of lettuce, tortilla chips, and salsa, and lots of fruit and some bread. And another cup of coffee. After we ate, we played a couple rounds of Uno, before we decided to look at some of Zach’s pictures with him. These were beautiful, and slowly the idea that Zach has been gone for a while, and this trip changed him, and the fact that he’s here now, and he’s not leaving soon, have started to seep in. And I feel a peace about me that soon we will get a chance to be in the same place and not have any obligations, and soon the degrees of separation will subside and we can be together for however long of a life God bids us.
When Zach came with me into the train station, and said goodbye to me in person, there beside me, with a kiss on the lips, I could tell you that it was perfect. It left me wanting more, excited for the future, motivated to finish strong, and ready to make things happen. I noticed many other changes in me while I was with the Hazlett’s. I felt like I was helping because I wanted to help, and because I could see the solution would make sense if I helped along with them, and because I love them. I could see that I wasn’t a third wheel when I was with them. I feel like part of the family.

Thanks for reading!

Prayer Requests and Praises
--I have four more weeks to go. This week is VBS, so we get a break in the mornings, but pray for all of us as we continue to work our butts off to make this program awesome for the kids.
--Praise that I got to see Zach! It was so awesome, which you probably read. Praise that I also got to go back to D.C.
--I am currently planning to apply to live off campus for the fall, and could use your prayers as I fill out the form. Anna already has an apartment in the perfect location that we are going to share with her roommate, and we just need to get me approved by the committee.
--Pray for Zach as he does reentry and debreifing
--My younger sister Marie is currently at Music Academy at Northwestern University. Because she talks so much with her chest voice, her vocal chords are really stressed and she has to rest them. Pray for her rest.
--My parents are going to Japan at the beginning of August. Pray for safe flights, a wonderful time with their friends, and a great celebration of 25 years of marriage.