Ok so I don't have a great rocord already with this blog thing... but i am going to keep going! I have been crazy since I started being a blogger :-) I live in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe which is on the border of Zambia in the Northwest (I think, I am bad with these kinds of things) of Zim. In the past 2 and a half weeks i have traveled all over... look at a map, I went from Vic Falls to Bulawayo to Masvingo to Harare to Banket (Chinoyi) to Harare to Bulawayo and then finally home! WOW!! SO much got accomplished though, and I have to tell you that i am so stoked! I will be going back to Harare on the 7th to renew my visa and to submit my application file for my work permit, prayers please.... Immigration will review it when I return back to the States and send me a letter in 6 weeks to let me know if I can return and begin working!
I visited my friend Michelle who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy 3 weeks ago and I was so blessed to spend a whole day with her and her family. I was most blessed, by the time I spent in AA meetings and with my fellow AA's around the country. I was in Masvingo for 3 days for an AA convention and let me tell you, I have missed these meetings. I need to remember where I came from or else I will forget where I am going. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the stuff of life and forget that every day that I am alive is a miracle. As I was sharing my story with these new friends, I realized that i have forgotten the girl that I was. WOW, I shared my story at the convention (a speaker had car trouble.... his fuel tank was leaking on the way!) and then was asked to travel to Harare and Bulawayo to do the same. I do not think it was an accident that I shared my story over 6 times in the past 2 weeks in AA and alanon meetings. I think God was telling me something, and I think I need to remember what it was like and what happened. I spend to much of my time these days in 'what it is like now' and that is dangerous territory for me.
It has been over 9 1/2 years since I have had a drink or a drug and it amazes me the journey God has taken me down. For those of you have been with me, you know that it has been a whirlwind and it is hard to believe that 10 years ago i was as messed up as I was an in a hospital after a suicide attempt. Miracles happen, I am living proof.
I am trying to work on an update to fill you all in, but really all I can say is that I am grateful. Now, I have to tell you that with every breakthrough, there is intese opposition. Not only am i grateful, but i also have felt a heavy wave of depression... something that i haven't felt in a long time. It doesn't suprise me, because I know that I am most vulnerable after a victory and I experienced several very important victories in Harare, but also the opposition I have faced from the few people in Vic Falls that don't like what we are doing have been intense since I returned. I try not to let this get to me, but there are moments when I forget who I am, I am start to listen to who they say I am. Why is it that the hurtful comments are so much easier to remember than the good ones?
I love you all, and i know I have been out of touch, but i am back!! Email away, I will respond now!
~R
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
My First Real Blog
Ok Beth, this is really for you... I will see if it works!
It is October in Zimbabwe, the month we in Vic Falls affectionately call "suicide month" It is starting to get really hot! I spend as much time as I can in the shower, in the river or in a pool... unfortunately there is often not water in my neighborhood, the river is illegal according to Parks and Wildlife and there isn't a pool in Mkhosana so I am sweaty a lot of the time!
I am heading back to the States for a little while at the end of November and I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family and or course, my little Rocky. I have missed a lot in the lives of my loved ones this year. 3 of my cousins have gotten married (I missed each of their weddings) and now one is having her first baby (congrats manda and tony!!). So many friends have gotten married and had babies and it is so hard to miss these special occasions. I cry when I look at pictures and realize that the babies in Vic Falls know me and I am more involved in their lives than the kids in my own family. These are the hardest sacrfices by far.
I have been posting my blogs on Myspace for a while, but an old friend (I try to listen to the ones that have been around a long time) really pressured me into this... so here goes. I will try to regularly update you on what is going on in my life here!
These days it is a lot of paperwork (for ROCK and for my work permit), a lot of cleaning and unpacking my new home )I am renting an adorable little house in Mkhosana, one of the high density areas of Vic Falls, and gardening... I am not a natural, this is a first for me! I spend a lot of time with the kids and their mom's in my neighborhood and I am learning all of the things Zimbabwean mommies do well....this is harder work than I am used to!
Well, I need to get back out into the heat... I am walking to the post office to mail a letter to the coolest kid i know in California. I will also check my mailbox, but I haven't had it long enough for mail to get here.... but if you want to send me a letter:
Regina Jones
PO BOX 85
Victoria Falls
Zimbabwe
More later!
R
It is October in Zimbabwe, the month we in Vic Falls affectionately call "suicide month" It is starting to get really hot! I spend as much time as I can in the shower, in the river or in a pool... unfortunately there is often not water in my neighborhood, the river is illegal according to Parks and Wildlife and there isn't a pool in Mkhosana so I am sweaty a lot of the time!
I am heading back to the States for a little while at the end of November and I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family and or course, my little Rocky. I have missed a lot in the lives of my loved ones this year. 3 of my cousins have gotten married (I missed each of their weddings) and now one is having her first baby (congrats manda and tony!!). So many friends have gotten married and had babies and it is so hard to miss these special occasions. I cry when I look at pictures and realize that the babies in Vic Falls know me and I am more involved in their lives than the kids in my own family. These are the hardest sacrfices by far.
I have been posting my blogs on Myspace for a while, but an old friend (I try to listen to the ones that have been around a long time) really pressured me into this... so here goes. I will try to regularly update you on what is going on in my life here!
These days it is a lot of paperwork (for ROCK and for my work permit), a lot of cleaning and unpacking my new home )I am renting an adorable little house in Mkhosana, one of the high density areas of Vic Falls, and gardening... I am not a natural, this is a first for me! I spend a lot of time with the kids and their mom's in my neighborhood and I am learning all of the things Zimbabwean mommies do well....this is harder work than I am used to!
Well, I need to get back out into the heat... I am walking to the post office to mail a letter to the coolest kid i know in California. I will also check my mailbox, but I haven't had it long enough for mail to get here.... but if you want to send me a letter:
Regina Jones
PO BOX 85
Victoria Falls
Zimbabwe
More later!
R
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