I'm pretty proud of myself because this morning I got up early and did a run for about 1/2 hour. It's the first time since we've been in Africa that I've jogged, although I have been doing some other exercises sporadically. I was reluctant to start jogging because I wasn't sure how it would go over in this culture where seeing a white woman run down the road in shorts is quite an unusual site for the locals. But I conferred with the director of the language school and he assured me that it would be no problem to do it, especially if I go early in the AM.
So, this morning I found myself running down the dirt driveway and up the road, over to the seminary next door, and around their soccer field a few times. It felt great to stretch my legs a bit. It was also wonderful to be able to take in the sights and sounds of my neighborhood as people were waking up. Sometimes I have these perfect moments when I'm suddenly hit over the head by the fact that I'm in Africa. I can't tell you the number of times while living in the US that I would ride my bike down a street or go for a walk and think "Some day I may do this in Africa." So, this morning as I was running around the dirt field, avoiding the cow crap on the ground, yelling "Shikamoo, Bibi*" to a worker in our school as he rode his bike up the driveway to work, I couldn't help but be grateful and think "Yup, here I am."
*Shikamoo is a term of greeting to someone who is older or should receive respect.
3 comments:
what an awesome story!!! i am sure you will cherish those special times by yourself where you can truly see and feel God at work. -Kaiser
Ok, my helpful husband just pointed out that if I said "Shikamoo, Bibi" to the male worker that I called him a woman because Bibi is grandmother. For the record, it was a typo. I meant "Babu" which is grandfather, or a term of respect for an elderly man. Whatever, you get the idea.
I really loved this post. So well put, I could just feel what you were feeling in a small way. Way to be there, way to be doing what you are doing, way to be you!
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