Week 1

I am in South Africa. Today marks a week of being gone and 5 days of being here at Door of Hope. I plan to write all of my blogs in a word document and then copy them to the blog when I am able to get Internet. These posts could get long but I hope to section them off so you can read what is interesting to you and skip the rest.

Communication- Internet and Phone

I have learned that Internet is going to be very limited while I am here. I am hoping to be able to get on for a little bit at least once a week but there will be no guarantee of that. This is because there is not Internet at the baby house. We have to walk to a restaurant in the Glen. The Glen is a mall that has everything that we need about a mile away. There is not a car available for the volunteers at the baby house so we have to walk to the Glen when we need anything. The catch is that you cannot go alone. It is too dangerous to do this. So we have to wait for a day off and someone willing to walk with us. I have also learned that I am able to get a half hour of Internet free and then have to start to pay for it afterwards. It is going to get expensive but that is just something that I am going to have to deal with. I believe that I am 7 hours ahead of home time wise. There is never going to be a guaranteed time that I will be on the Internet. Hopefully I will be able to set up times with the girls once I get on more of a schedule. It will always be morning in Michigan though. There are a few phones that we share here between us. I will hopefully get one the end of the month that will be mine while I am here. I can then buy minutes and hopefully use a calling card to call and even text everyone once in a while! I will post more about that when I am able.

Homesick

To say that I am homesick would be an understatement. Know that I am not writing this to get pity from everyone but because I promised that I would be honest on this blog. I would say that the worst part of the day is the morning and the evening. I have compared myself to a camper many times already. I just might be to the point some evenings that I would be the one crying during tie-dye. I miss you all the most but there are little things that I miss also. Things simple like driving. I have only ridden in a car twice since being here.  I have experienced homesickness before. The prime example is moving in at Hope. But even when there, I had a car and was able to go to familiar places. That is not possible here. There are not familiar places, only familiar things. I cannot thank you all enough for the daily encouragement that you gave me. I know that the purpose was that I read a page everyday and there would be something new and a reminder from home but truth is I have read the entire thing already, more than once. I have also brought about two dozen printed pictures with me. I have to limit myself how often I look at these so that they are a help and not a hindrance with the homesickness. I continue to pray and read scripture whenever the homesickness begins to set in. The day after I got here one of the girls was leaving She did not want to leave as she got attached here. I would have given my right arm to trade places with her at that point. I do believe that this will subside soon but if anyone has any ideas how to make homesickness better I am open to ideas. I would love nothing more than to have nurse Andrea fly down with homesick medicine, so if anyone wants to contribute to her plane ticket fund that would be greatly appreciated.

Jet Lag and Sickness

I am experiencing jet lag to the full right now. I still have to adjust to the different sleep schedule and currently spend about 4-5 hours in the middle of the night awake. I am praying that I am able to get on the right schedule very soon. One thing that has not helped me get on this schedule is that I have spent the last three days in bed sick. I have had extreme dizziness and nausea. While is bed I am able to sleep when I want and that is what I have done. Not helping the schedule thing. The dizziness and nausea have still not gone away completely and when talking with some of the girls I have to believe that they are also part of the jet lag factor. I have not started work yet because of not feeling well.

Other Volunteers

Well, right now it sounds like life is horrible. (Depending on when you would catch me I would say it was. Just being honest.) There are some things that have been good, one being the other volunteers. Right now there are 8 volunteers at Door of Hope. Many of them are also from the states along with one from Germany and one from the Netherlands. Two of the girls will leave at the end of the month and three others will leave the end of December and beginning of January. At that point one more will join us. Many of the girls are here for three months. There is one that came this summer and will be here for a year and another that came three weeks before me that will be here for seven months. She leaves the week after I do. There are many times that I am extremely jealous of the three monthers but I am glad that there will be a few here the entire time that I am as well.

Where am I living

I am at baby house one in Glenvista. Hang with me as I try to describe what it is like and hopefully I will be able to put a few pictures up soon. Otherwise check out the pictures on Door of Hope’s facebook page. First off, everything is in one building but it is not all interconnected. The baby house is one entrance, the volunteer flat is another and the two more bedrooms are part of the third. In the baby house there are three sections. There is the big baby section, little baby section, and toddler or starfish section. There is a big kitchen in the baby house also that was recently renovated. The volunteer flat is next. In the flat there is a living room, a bedroom that houses three people, a bathroom and a kitchen. It is where we hang out on our days off and in the evening before bed. There is a tv and dvd player in the flat so almost every night we will watch a movie together. Then there is the last of the bedrooms. These are in the basement of sorts. There is a 2-person room and a 4-person room. I am currently in the 4-person room with one other girl. There is also a bathroom here and the laundry room is next door. Two of the girls in the flat will leave the end of November and when they leave I will be moving there.  All of the rooms are very small, dorm room size. It works but there is not much space to just be alone if that is what you want. A few of the girls also stay in a flat off site. The property that this baby house sits on is very small. There is a small yard area with nice grass for the babies to play on. There is also an in ground pool on site. We are free to use this on our days off. So I better be coming home with a great African tan since I am here during the summer months. Everything here is surrounded by gates and security systems. It is like nothing I have ever seen in the states. There is a big gate around the entire property and smaller areas sectioned off inside of it, such as the pool and grass area. All of the doors to the building have a gate that is closed and locked and then the wooden door is closed and locked.  Before going to bed we also lock our bedroom door, so we are locked in at least four times!

Schedule

The typical schedule for working will be three days on and then two days off. This does include weekends because someone has to take care of those babies! There are times when it is different but this is what they try to make happen. I have not started with the babies yet because the first three days I was suppose to be on I was not feeling well, so I will let you all know what the daily schedule is like when I know it.

Pictures

I am able to take pictures of the babies! If you look on the facebook page you will see very few pictures of them and you never see their faces. This is to protect them. As of this month there are not going to be any pictures of them posted online at all. I am able to take as many pictures as I would like for personal use. They will never be able to be shared or published online or elsewhere in any way. So this means that you have to wait until April to see pictures of me with the babies or the babies in any way. (6 months just got a little bit longer for you all too, didn’t it.)

Wednesday Night Bible Study

Door of Hope (DOH) has connections with the International Missions Board (IMB). One of the ladies that works with IMB has developed a strong connection with DOH and especially the volunteers. She also has two college-aged girls that have been here for I believe the semester as interns. Together they have created a Bible Study on Wednesday nights for us. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon so I was able to meet everyone and participate in the Wednesday Bible Study last week. I loved it!  We are looking at women in the Bible. Last week we looked at Esther. One of the girls also plays guitar so we were able to worship before the study. It was extremely refreshing. I am going to look forward to this every week. It also helps that it is on Wednesday since this has been a night that I have spent time with friends for the past year or so being honest with one another, sharing about life, taking time to pray and eating ice cream. I am missing traditions like that a lot right now but these new ways of life have started to help.

Personal Goals

I have made a few personal goals for myself while I am here. I am sharing them with you so that you can all help to keep me accountable to them.

1.     Take a picture a day. I bought a new camera before I came. Yes, it is the big fancy kind that cost a little bit too much money. I wanted to have good pictures from my time here and I hope that it is an investment for the future as well. This being said I need to make sure that I use it. There are no rules for the daily picture. It can be of whatever I want. This just gets be using the camera and documenting my time here in full instead of on the last two days.

2.     Write everyday. I have never been a journaler as much as I want to be sometimes. During these months though I feel that it is important to write down the new experiences that I have and keep track of my feelings and emotions. I have challenged myself to at least write about the picture that I take everyday. There have been some days so far that the entries are very short but there are also some already that take up pages.

3.     The final goal is to read scripture everyday and to ultimately read the Bible through. I started with the small goal of just reading scripture everyday. If I am being honest this is not something that I am good at. There can be days at a time that I will not pick up my Bible and that is just disappointing to me. I want to get better at this. I decided to add reading it through in the past few days. I have tried to do this before but have always failed. I believe that there will be great power in reading scripture cover to cover while I am here. Besides there is not much else to do on our days off.

This all being said, I need to have you all help keep me accountable to these goals. Remind me of them every once in a while. I would also challenge you to the same ones. Maybe you want to pick just one or maybe you want to join me in all three. It would be great encouragement to have others participating with me. It will also be fun when I get home to compare the past 6 months that we have been apart.

A few fun things that don’t fit anywhere else!

-       I am Auntie Emily here! Everyone goes by Auntie and their first name or most of the time just Auntie. I love it. It unites us as family and it is a great reminder of camp.

-       Cape Town looks like it could be a possibility! Four of the girls went about three weeks ago together and a few of the other ones are trying to set a trip for in January. They have invited me along. We just have to hope that they are willing to give us all the same week off. Penguin beach would be a stop. The other girls did some pretty crazy things such as horse riding on the beach and cage diving with great whites. I really pray that this can happen and in the middle of my stay would be great.

-       We all have Thanksgiving off. They try and give all the volunteers one day off together each month. The lady from IMB has invited us all over to her flat and we will have a traditional Thanksgiving meal. I am very excited for this and so grateful to be spending the day with the rest of the volunteers in a relaxing way. This will be the first holiday away from home ever and the first holiday out here.

-       Birthday Shout Out- Happy Birthday Beth! I pray that this year is your best yet. I pray that dreams come true. Know that you were thought of often on Saturday. Miss you and love you more than words can say.

-       24 weeks left. 168 days before I head for home. Lord, continue to give me the strength to achieve this dream and be your hands and feet here in Africa. I can only do it with your help!

-       My address here is, hopefully it will get to me. Send a letter first and I will let you know that I got it.

Door of Hope

c/o Emily Rosendahl

15 Barbara Road

Glenvista Johannesburg, 2058, South Africa

Well I believe that is all. Long post I know. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them as I can. Know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers daily. I miss you all more than you know and love you more than words can express.

P.S. I am not proof reading this so if there are spelling and grammar errors, and I am sure there are, please excuse them.