Dos Semanas Más

The weeks fly past like days, and I merely have two weeks left here. Whether or not I am counting down the days depends on the day and hour. My emotions oscillate between enjoying it here and wanting it to be done. Some days are great and others are hard with good and difficult things being constantly present amidst those. Relationships are always a good thing; the language barrier is always a difficult thing.

I have been blessed with a friend here named Bonnie who’s from the states and works at a clinic here as an x-ray technician. I have been able to process a lot of this with her as she and her husband have been living here for over 14 years, and she understands a lot of my struggles. If you’re reading this, thank you Bonnie.

I continue to wonder how I will view this trip after it is over. I have no guess as to my feels post-trip but know that I will have stories to share of hard things personally, people I’ve met, patients I’ve worked with, therapists I’ve gotten to know, economic and medical situations in Honduras, and funny, cultural and embarrassing episodes.

But what am I learning on this trip? Will I take anything from this trip that will become a part of who I am or what I live for? I write down what I think and feel but don’t know why I am here at times. I know it’s hard to see change in yourself and that a person can know themselves best within community where others paint their picture more accurately and revealingly than their own self-portrait. But will I actually be changed? And if I am not, can I be content with that? Or maybe a better question is can I be content with the fact that so much of what I’ve learned are reflections on my responsibility of how to live a good life which takes discipline, self-control and commitment?

I have begun to cook more which is nice to have work to do (see the picture below). Right now the majority of the work I do is either observing or intellectual reading and do very little work with my hands. Thankfully I have gotten to work with some of the patients (some kids for the first time this week), experiment with cooking and exercise in my room. One of my objectives on this trip was to find a group of people to play soccer with consistently, but that has proved to be one of the hardest to complete. Most of the soccer games are organized in leagues unless you know a group of people to play soccer with, whom I do not have.

One thing I received last week were explanations of therapy from the children therapists, and I look forward to deciphering those as I haven’t made the time yet. One good thing is that most medical terms are similar if not the same and only differ in pronunciation.

I have been encouraged by Bonnie to take more pictures of what I’m doing at Teletón, so some of those are attached below.

Today and yesterday I actually took a lot of pictures. Today I bought Orlando a lamp to compensate for some things of his that I broke (good story from my first day here). Then we went to the cemetery which was beautiful.

For all my Swazi friends (no matter the generation), I read a quote today that rings true for me. It was by a guy who worked for the Peace Corp for two years in Guinea: “We may have done some good, but what Africa did for us has created a lifetime debt.”

As always prayer is appreciated and needed. I am really thankful for this trip and have enjoyed my time here and look forward to telling you about how it finishes up.

~Bennett

My cooking experiment: potatoes with sausage and apple slices.

Amy and her mom.

I don't remember his name but he was really active.

Sophie with her mother on the left and Claudia on the right.

The lamp I bought Orlando after I broke his wine glasses.

The cemetery.

I took a picture and then realized what they were doing. Nonetheless they're beautiful lizards.