Got the best of me

this past week has been full of "is this seriously my life? am i actually here moments?"
one when i was sitting on a little hill with a cool guy named elvis eating lemons right off a tree, one when i was driving in the back of a truck with 10 guys from the building team right after they won there soccer game, one when i was being addressed as "sister" by people i've never met.

Yesturday was a very intresting and lovely day for me. I was able to go out with the OVC corridnater who's name is jabolela (jabo for short) her name means happy and she is absolutely that.
We made a visit in the morning and then came home for lunch, when we went out in the afternoon she told me we would be visiting a home where 2 orphanes lived, a little girl and a little boy, they where staying with there aunty who had 6 of her own children, when we arrived there where 4 children there, they where grinding corn to make maize meal. like in many situation the children where kind of stand offish around the "malungo" (white person) but after sitting there for a few minutes the little boy came close to me and we shook hands and then he crawled up into my lap and he pulled my arms around him because he wanted me to hug him, and that is the moment when my heart broke, the grandmother of these two children had been stealing their food parcel and there grant money, but i was just so struck at how much he just wanted to be loved and i automatically just think about how he doesnt have a mom or a dad to just hold him and love him and tell him he is adorable that that he means the world to them. and after he went to jabo and told her that he loved me....

when i got home yesturday night i couldnt stop thinking about him and i think it hit me hardest when i was trying to sleep because i was thinking "this isnt a story i heard, this isnt off some childrens right actavating website...i held him in my arms, he was a very real little boy who i hugged tightly"
Then i asked God to never ever let me become indifferent to these situation, i dont know if some people do but i asked God to just break my heart over and over,i never want to forget what that feels like, to know i am holding a child who just wants love and who doesnt have it.
but Ngi na themba (i have hope)
i always need to remind myself that God DOES have a plan, he is with that little boy, i'm just going to pray that the little boy knows it to

Prisoner of Happiness

I should probably work on blogging more often but i am pretty busy.

the past week and a half have been incrediable!
hands at work hosted there african conference and all the african project leaders came to here.
on the first day of the conference we had workshops and we talked about the 3 primary needs that they are trying to proved and the challenges that they face, while i was listening to the challenges that they face the only thing i could think was "this is to hard....this is TO hard how can they do this this is to hard" and the more i thought about it the more i realized that these people are truely incrediable....these are followers of christ, these are people who see the wrong in there communities and acknowledge that its hard and STILL do it, maybe that doesnt strike you guys as much as it did me, but i will say for the most part i was on the brink of tears everytime i talked to them or thought about them.

something else amazing happened this monday, I was in a terriable car crash, our van was completely turned around and flipped over (so we where upside down) your probably asking why i think this is amazing, well like it was a BAD accident and there where 9 of us in the van and there are no seat belts in the back and NO ONE was hurt, we all have a little bit of bruises etc but no one was seriously hurt which is truely a miracle, God was there proctecting us i have no douobt because seeing the vehical after and knowing the guys in the back didnt have seatbelts on you would think people would have been severly hurt. So on that same note, thank you to everyone who is praying for me, i am so grateful.
in the most messed up was possiable the accident was kind of good, i have a stronger bond with the people who where also in the car and i feel extreme reasurance from God that this is where i am meant to be and that he is with me.

these next two weeks are individual prep time and i dont know exactly what i will be doing but im getting exicted, our training is almost over and im so ready to dive right in.
I've said this before and i am going to say it again, I love it here so much and i am sooo happy.
I do miss my friends and family though, its funny when we do different things i alwasy find myself thinking "oh so and so would be so good at this" or "this is a job for so and so" i think everyone has a place here, there is so much to be done.

Im trying realy hard to learn siswati, i borrowed a dictonary and a grammer book and and i try to spend atleast 15 minutes every day doing it but....the langue has clicks in it and pops and sounds that i just physically can not make, hahaha, but i am trying and some people are helping me a little bit.

I dont really know what else to write.....
miss you guys!

if anyone has the desire to send me mail you can send it to:
Lacey Shurmer
c/o hands at work
PO box 3534
white river 1240
mpumalanga south africa