Redeeming Love: Joy

Salama!

I cannot believe I've already been here for a month. It's pretty surreal.

Well anyways, today I went to the village with some of my housemates to visit Mama Ansha. She works here on base in the kitchen, so after her shift today, we walked with her to her home.

Let me rewind a bit. Earlier today, I had planned with a couple of girls to go to town where we were going to buy juice. Long story short, we couldn't go anymore and I have to admit I was a bit lived. I know it seems like no big deal, but I've been dreaming of grape juice. Anyways, it was time to go to Anshas home.

On the way we found our friend KC and he agreed to go with us (which made us feel a little safer since he's a guy and knows his way around). This woman had a heavy bag on her head and was jetting. I was carrying one of her lighter bags and could hardly keep up. As we were walking, little kids would just come out of nowhere and hug us. It took awhile to get to her home and let's just say we had to go through quite a couple of places that I am thankful KC was with us.

We got to her home and the kids automatically gave us their plastic chairs. I sat on the floor and Ansha did not let lol. She began to tell us that she has 1 son and how her daughter passed away years ago (it seemed she might have had anecephaly). There was a young girl there(I'll call her V) who was there because her mom was in the hospital because she was real sick. The little girl was covered in what seemed to be a rash and was constantly crying. Martha one of the ladies in my house immediately took action and made KC buy soap and gave the girl a shower so her fever would leave. I was in awe of Marthas initiative spirit. She told me, "you'll see when you become a mom you'll do the samething." Afterwards, V looked a lot better.

Despite the mudhut, she had a small tv in her home. She really wanted us to see her wedding video. So 5 of us sit in a cot in her kitchen/living room and watch her video. She was beaming. She was so proud of it. She got married less than a year ago to a bible student on base. The video looked like it was filmed on a really old camcorder. No editing, no effects, no soundtrack. It was amazing to see how people here are happy with things that people back home go crazy for.

After her husband got home and we said our goodbyes, they were so excited to take pictures. Everyone was smiling and just happy to have us there.

So tonight, I'm okay that I don't have juice. And I'm asking God to make me more like Ansha. To love and to choose joy daily.

Ansha and I :)