Rebecca's Adventures: Update on my Adventures!

Dancing outside the 'Lily Market'

Friends and Family. Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. This last month has been difficult and I wanted to wait until things settled down a little bit before I said anything.

While out with the MCC team eating lunch with the zebras!

As some of you may know just over a month ago there was a volunteer attacked at Lily. This was a scary event for Lily and there were many security things put in place before and even more after this happened. Rachel the volunteer who was attacked is doing well and recovering. Please continue to pray for her as she heals and works through things.

Because this all happened MCC decided Dominik (SALTer) and I would have to be moved off site way from the kids. There was under 3 weeks where we stayed in PMB where our supervisors live. While there we did not do much, there were a few days of planned MCC SwaLeSA events so we took part in those. Which was fun to be with the team again, and getting to welcome in two new Service Workers!

As of Wednesday the 24th of February Dominik and I moved to a sister children’s village of Lily called iKhethelo, which is about 30 min from Lily. We will be working here one day a week and then 4 days a week we will travel into Lily to work. Then the other two days we have off.

This whole situation is going to be hard to get used to but most importantly we are able to still be at Lily at least 4 days a week, and this is better than not being able to see them at all.

My new room

The day we left Lily was really difficult. I knew I was going to be back, but I didn’t know in what capacity, either just to visit or to work or what. And saying bye to those kids sucked! The Thursday (25th) when we went back for the first time in over 2 weeks was the best! As kids came home from school and saw Dominik and I they were surprised! I was also ecstatic to see them all! One of my favourite moments was when some of the younger boys came back from school and Dominik went out of the office to see them they were excited and chatting with him; then I heard some of them ask where I was. So I peeked my head around the corner and some of them saw me and ran toward me. Its one of the best feelings in the world knowing there are about 120 kids excited to have you back in their lives!

My new ride! Sweet 1996 Landrover!

I may be down playing a bit how hard the past few weeks have been. And how hard the next few weeks are going to be to adjust. I went through at lot of frustration and anger when I found out we were being pulled out and when we were actually pulled out. I was able to work through it with the help of God. There are still times where I get frustrated at the situation but I know and understand why we are where we are. It is going to be hard to adjust to the new schedule as Dominik and I leave iKhethelo at 7 then get to Lily around 8 but then are not back to iKhethelo until around 7 in the evening. (side note: This also means I have been driving here in SA!) Both Dominik and I had evening activities that we were involved with so getting used to not being there for those things will be a change.

Anyway, so the past few days being at Lily has been great! Spending time with the kids and having actual work to do during the day is nice. I love getting some baby cuddles in the morning and playing games with the younger kids in the afternoon and chatting and catching up with the teens. It is so good to be back!

Until next time…check out these cute pictures of some of the kids that bring the most joy yo me heart. (There are also so many kids who are not pictured who also have a huge part in bringing me joy each day as well!)