The First Days

Well, I am finally here. It took 31 hours, crossing 8 time zones. At first it didn't hit me but then when I layed in bed I finally realized that I was in AFRICA. Tim and Merideth met us at the airport and we immediately got down to business roll starting the van! haha A couple of people in the group were not sure if we were going to have to work the first day or not. I wasn't sure but I was hoping we wouldn't. Sure enough, all we did was go to the beach for a while. SO CLUTCH! First day was just coping to the time change and stuff. Second day we had our orientation in the morning, then going around town to the ministries they have going on here. We met a lot of people, shook a bunch of hands, and butchered the word "bonjour" a ton!!

In orientation, we were talking about how some people go to certain places and expect their schedules to be full and to be exhausted by the end of the day. It is quite the contrary here. The Brokopp's try to connect us with certain people and not necessarily getting things done. Because, for one, doing a lot of work and stuff is impersonal with the people and the culture around you. Second, when you are thinking about getting stuff done and focusing on not being tired, you might miss things that you would not normally get to see/hear/taste. NOT that we are not wanting to get things done. WE WILL DO WORK. But, it is so easy sometimes to think that we are here to DO things and not here to BE here. We should be more focused on being instead of doing.