It's Not A Vacation!

This is everyday life! I must admit that when I first came in 2004 I was on vacation. I was like a kid in a candy store wondering what to taste first. It was different then, that was then and this is now and now has been going on for awhile. 

There are so many things I’d like to share with you from my early beginnings, but I’m not allowed to reproduce copyrighted materials and those things I’ve written in a copyrighted  book that I’m seeking a publisher for. So I may hint at some things, but not fully expose some things as we continue.

Coming to Africa has been a part of me since I was a child. It was my spirit and even now when I think of leaving Africa that same spirit cries that causes the body of me to weep.  Six weeks, that’s all it was suppose to be so I was on a natural high! Every drum beat I heard I felt!  Every taste that was on my tongue delighted me and all the colors of the fabrics, people fruits and veggies excited me! I was free, a freedom that I had not ever known. I’d party till eight or nine the next morning and wake up midday so I could go hang out on the beach. don’t party any more till the wee hours of the morning and I hardly ever go clubbing now at all. None of it’s new to me anymore, but I’m always looking and open to the new!

It’s not a secret that the infrastructure here is not close to what’s available in the states or most of the developed world so electricity is not promised to you. As a visitor when there were power cuts it was an adventure to light candles and guess what time electricity would be restored. Now I prepare for it because it’s not fun or an adventure any more when there is no electricity for hours and it’s hot! I’ve been blessed to be able to have an inverter system. What that is a solar battery that’s connected to an apparatus (inverter) that stores electricity when the current is flowing so when it’s off on goes the inverter and voila, I have electricity! Yayyyyyy! Something I have learned is to be more thankful for things we take for granted, like having an arm to fan with! We complain when it's hot. but imagine being hot without an arm to fan yourself. Whoa, thank you LORD!

It’s been a struggle! Since I didn’t plan to come and stay I didn’t have a back up plan so what was going out was out with nothing coming in. I had a couple of bucks in the bank, just a couple and my frenemy stole that! Huh, what!? That’s right, that’s what I said! The woman that was supposed to be my friend, the one I had helped out was writing checks against my account in the states and withdrawing my money from the bank till it was gone. She had even sold my car and was here in Africa telling me that the purchaser was sending the money any day knowing she had smoked up the money. I could have sent her to prison once the bank realized the error, but that’s not me. GOD will take care of her more than I can and no Chase Bank didn’t return the money. She was living in the same house with we while harboring all these lies. Anyway later for her, she’s taken enough of my energy and can’t have any more!

So here I was in Gambia, no money, no job, no plan B, but I had more than enough! I’ve got GOD on my side. I had already started my organization and got my first contract to teach HIV/AIDS in the workplace for another NGO here. That money allowed me to go back to the states for a few weeks to see my Mom, the last time I would see her. I wanted my Mother with me in Africa because I knew in my heart and spirit that I couldn’t stay in the states then, what was for me here had not been completely revealed and my spirit called me back. 

By the time I got back frenemy had moved out of my house, thank GOD and the journey continued and so shall we. 

 Have a blessed weekend, back on Monday!