Fresh Cut Grass Smells the same in any language

1 december 2008

Over the past couple of weeks I have been spending time with ROCK of Africa’s most recent team of volunteers. You can check out thier experiences on www.rockofafrica.org The November trip is always called an ACT of Thanksgiving. People travel to Zimbabwe over the Thanksgiving holiday to serve and distribute much needed relief supplies.

This year, the situation in Zimbabwe is worse than ever and the supplies and food that ROCK was distributed was greatly needed. In the days that lead up to the teams arrival, the weight of the circumstances in which we live here started to take their tole on me. I have been repeatedly sick over the past couple of months, nothing serisous, just enough to keep me tired discouraged.

Things in Zimbabwe are at an uncomfortable place. Prices are exhorbitant. Cash is unavailable, everyone is using US dollars and the prices for things are rediculous: think $2-3 for a can of coke, some places even $6! Fuel is so costly. People are struggling, businesses are struggling. Now we have an outbreak of Cholera at the same time that hospitals are closing their doors for lack of supplies and staff.

There is not clean water in this country. It is making people sick. Some people go days without water for bathing, cooking or drinking. It is HOT here right now. I am drinking about 3-5 liters of water a day. Thankfully you all are buying me bottled water right now. I don’t know how people are surviving.

While the team was here I stayed in a chalet at the rest camp with the girls on the team and it was so nice to laugh and cry and just feel normal. I felt safe from the outside world, the Zimbabwe that was outside the gate. The hungry kids, the blind people begging on the street, the babies dying in the hospital, and the people I love in Harare who are consumed with trying to stop this cholera outbreak!

I was able to stop and just breathe for the first time in a while… and at that moment, the gardeners at the campground were mowing the lawn and I realized firstly, that it had been a long time since I smelled fresh cut grass… and secondly that this smell is the same everywhere. It was refreshing for me to remember that some things are the same everywhere. Cutting the grass is a small example, God’s love is a big one.

On one of the mornings I was staying with the team, I woke up and some of my boys from the street were sitting outside of the fence that is right by our chalet. They were just waiting and wathcing for us to come out. I love those kids. The truth is that my world is no longer on that side of the fence,the side that even if they want to, doesn’t understand Zimbabwe, my world is on that side of the fence… the ugly, hard side. And no matter how great it feels to have a break from it, when the team left I was ready to get back to my life.

I am leaving Zimbabwe next week so this week is hectic. I am packing up my house and getting ready to spend some time in Bulawayo, Gweru and Harare.

Thank you for continuing to pray for Zimbabwe, and for me!

Gi