She has earrings all over her face

School starts back up again today for the second term. It’s just registration and stuff the first few days so we’ll start Bible Study up again next week. Since we finished the Firm Foundations curriculum last term, we decided we would continue the story of the gospel through the book of Acts. We’ll emphasize the missional nature of being a follower of Christ and hopefully give the students some practical outreach opportunities.

But next week they’ll kick off without me because I’ll be traveling again. A team of 11 Americans from Palm Beach Atlantic arrived last Thursday with Operation Mobilization. They spent a few days on the plot for orientation before heading out to Swakop for ministry this week. They need another driver to join them next week for their trek north to Etosha National Park and ministry in the Kaokoland (pronounced Ka-OH-ka-land), so guess who got the job!

I don’t usually interact much with teams that come through here, but since I’ll be traveling with them I decided I should at least meet them to start working on names. During some free time on Friday I joined them for a walk exploring the plot. It’s been a while since I’ve been around first-timers so I kept laughing at them taking pictures of everyday things, using American terminology and commenting about everything African. I don’t laugh critically because we all start there, but it was just a reminder of how acclimated I’ve become to living here.

That night I took some of them over to Coffeebar. That’s when I got a taste of what really happens when a bunch of short-term missionaries show up. :) I’m at a place now where people are comfortable with me, so now when I show up with a kombi full of newbie Americans I’m on the other side of all the conversations behind their backs. I hear all the comments about “She didn’t think I speak English” or “She has earrings all over her face”. So when our teams show up in two months realize this: if it seems people are laughing at you, they probably are.