Side Effects of a Mission Trip

     There is no way I hadn't written anything about SA since the top of September, so something else pre-dated may show up in a post soon if I find it, but for now I THINK we're all caught up!

Please rewind for a minute though...
Within two weeks of being back home, I had learned of three unfortunate incubations my body was dealing with since leaving Africa.

1. Massive time change: going out there and switching my biological clock ahead 8 hours magically worked out just fine, coming home was the real trouble. With the way dates landed, I had to be at work (CYT summer camp) at 8:30a the day after getting home and for the next four days following! I'll even admit to you that I showered the night we came home but then it didn't even cross my mind again until Wednesday morning. Getting back into the swing of things can take a toll on you: especially when ambien doesn't work to help you sleep...
2. Some sort of unidentified stomach bug. By the time I finally gave up on trying to deal with being sick every 3 - 4 days I went to the doctor who gave me an at-home test (but luckily I never had to take it because it conviently worked itself out after the visit).
3. I broke out with a mild-moderate case of ringworm around August 15, 2010 that I'd apparently picked up from one of the kiddos at Freedom Park somewhere during our time there. Lucky for you, my readers, I did not take a picture of said disturbingly itchy inflammation. Now, 5 months and 5ish days later, I am still washing all my clothes with color safe bleach and applying a perscription cream + a band-aid to the dark circle (after washing the specific sopt with Dial) on my inner right elbow daily...  

Even though I am still dealing with the ringworm, I realize that I am incredibly blessed that it did not surface until our team had been home for a week. I don't know if I can even imagine how horrible it would've been to have to fly home (33 hour trip home) with a ring of fire - so to speak - surfaced on my arm the entire way with no soothing cream. What makes me even more grateful about this whole "ringworm attack" is that once I broke out, I was able to go to the doctor then to Wal*Mart to start a healing remedy for it. The child/ren I picked it up from do not have that so they'd most likely been falling asleep tearing up the skin surrounding their infection for a few nights prior, or at least all day at school or in the Creche.

Dear South African Sweethearts: Thank you for the "forget-me-nots"! Even without my infection, there is no way that I could forget this trip. Ever. Too life changing... :)

After being home for 1 month.

September 7th: Amidst writers block on one of those nights you realize you won't be able to sleep until you write down what is on your mind keeping you awake. I'm not sure how much it just sounds like me complaining about my life, which is definitaly the last thing I mean to do. Also, I realize the rhyme scheme is kind of funky, but this one isn't meant to be perfect...



This year I've told so many people
that it is bad to keep everything in
but tonight while trying to word whats on my heart
I feel like it is being clenched shut, with a clothes pin.

There are lots of things on my heart
that I'd like to relay to our nation
but I don't know how to
rid myself of this suffocation.

Situation being what it is is fine,
nobody cares to listen -
nobody even cares to hear.
I figure that is the root where i feel this division.

Each line of a story
will strike everyone differently.
Love, fear, confusion, or anger -
every story brought something new to me.

I wish I could tell you
everything on my mind that
is making my thought process askew.
If anyone had to live my life for a day, their world would fall flat.