Routine

Well this week kind of flew by way faster than I could have imagined. I apologize that the weekend came and went and I sort of forgot to share anything. Take this as a good sign! We are truly like a little family here in the house I am staying in. We cook together, eat together, pray together, watch countless hours of TV together, work in the garden, go shopping…. we do life together. It’s been a blast. This update will be rather short as not much new has happened, but a lot of learning has taken place and I am beginning to settle in.

My, "what the heck am I
supposed to do next" face

This week I have officially been convinced to wake up at 5:30 every morning to jog. God is obviously doing big things in my life because if you know me you know this doesn’t happen haha. Here are a few photos of life here… I’ve been getting pretty good at cooking sadza, one of the staple foods here. The phrase, “she’s white on the outside and black on the inside” has officially been stated, so I guess that means I’m doing quite well. You can see me cooking this playdough like substance in these photos. I have some pretty great and patient teachers, and have enjoyed learning to eat it with… basically everything.

Sadza success

Lastly for now, one of my favorite things has been venturing into town to go grocery shopping every few days. I have been blessed with some great friends and I am excited to travel with them in the weeks to come. Hopefully I will have some more exciting stories soon!

Learning points:

• “Just now” means something is about to happen in the next hour, not “something happened just now.”
• I am still not a morning person no matter how much I get up to run.
• KKK in a text means HAHAHA not the pointy hat wearing people...

Connecting

Most of the OM team in training

I arrived in Zimbabwe on Friday last week with some pretty serious jet lag. I had the opportunity to attend a local church that Sunday. Most of the members were Zimbabweans of British descent, so naturally there was tea time after the service where I was able to make some connections that will be beneficial as I transition.

Sunday afternoon I went to the training center where I will be staying for the next two months. I soon learned that we are not allowed to use WiFi except for limited use on a particular computer… and my phone didn’t work. I was unexpectedly and immediately disconnected from familiarity. This has been a little tough, but it’s forced me to focus on getting connected here.

Connecting has been made much easier by a particularly sweet 8 year-old that has latched herself to me as a friend. Shalom always wants to be doing something with me, whether that be making bracelets, drawing, looking at every photo and video on my phone, doing homework, dancing, or running around the yard in a wheelbarrow… I am very grateful for her!

This week has been rather long and full of so many new things. The group I am here with has been so gracious to include me in everything and laugh at/with me when I face new cultural differences. The best adventure has been cooking. We are assigned certain days to cook with a small group. It’s been absolutely hilarious and perhaps a little bit stressful to discover the differences in how we cook things and learn to work together to create something edible.

Our days this week have been full of team building activities and lessons. I have been continually humbled as we learn and grow closer together as a team. There are seven of us, three girls and four guys ranging in age from our early 20’s to late 40’s. Some are headed the same direction as me, some are local pastors, and others are preparing to head out into cross-cultural service elsewhere. Pictured here is our group and the trainers that have been with us this week. This gives you a picture of the personalities we have in this place – literally haha.

Learning points:

• “Pants” means underwear. So don’t talk about your pants.
• You should intentionally eat cereal soggy by heating the milk before you drown the cereal in it.
• If you don’t close your windows by 6pm you will be eaten alive by mosquitos. (Lucky for me I got a heads up and didn’t have to learn this the hard way.)
• Every time is tea time, so there should always be water boiling.

Thank you all so much for your support! I’m so excited for more traveling adventures to come.