A Change of Heart- Kitto Village

I'll never forget my first night in Africa in June of 2010. I was fresh out of college, and had absolutely NO idea what to expect- at that point all I knew about traveling to Africa was things I had heard from people or learned from Google:) Our plane landed around 11:30 p.m.- I had heard from many people that you are NOT allowed to drive on the roads at night because of how unsafe it was. Well here we were, jamming into a small car heading to our guesthouse about an hour away. I will never forget that drive- the smells, the music, the fires in the trash cans along the roadway- there weren't very many street lights (the power is very hit and miss where we were) and that drive seemed like it lasted for hours. All that was going through my mind was- what in the world did I get myself into??

We arrived at our guesthouse and I was able to get into bed and lay there aimlessly  sleep. A few tears may have fallen down my cheeks that night (I blame it on exhaustion) :). The next morning (really about 4 a.m. when I woke up STARVING) I laid in bed attempting to eat cheese-its quietly (not an easy task) it was still dark in my room and I was trying to not wake my roommate up. The sun started peeking through around 5:30 and I snuck out of our room to go out front to actually get a good look at the city we had driven through the night before.

This is what I woke up to-

I stood on the balcony- and was so amazed at the beauty and the sounds- I was in awe. It was NOT what I expected it to look like after the drive the night before. In that moment, my heart began opening up to this place, I knew God was going to do great work in me through this journey.

After my awe inspiring morning, our group loaded up on a bus- we were headed to a village about 2 hours away. I was so EXCITED. We literally drove up the side of a mountain to get to this village and it was breathtaking-

When we finally arrived to Kitto, we were greeted by about 100 kids and others who lived in the village. The children sang us beautiful songs they had been learning in school, they showed us their classrooms which were newly built and we had the opportunity to meet the elders in the village. After this our groups split up- everyone went up to their newly built church and I decided to stay back with the kiddos. We played a game called snake- essentially you create a long line of people all holding each others abdomen and you swirl around in all kinds of patterns (For some reason i was blanking on games and this extremely exciting game came to mind). As terrible as I thought my game was the kids LOVED it- there was much laughter and giggling- which very well could have been because of the awkward Mzungu (translates to traveler) attempting to entertain them. At first the kiddos were pretty leery to touch me or hang on me, but one little girl decided to go for it and just wrapped her arms around my waist- her face will never leave my mind, and I don't know if this little girl will ever know the impact she made on my life. The rest of the afternoon was filled with singing, dancing, photo shoots, games and a ton of laughter- the kids were no longer leery of me and I was constantly surrounded by these awesome children.

We returned to this village the next day, and I did not want to leave that afternoon. One of the teachers walked up to me and she said "how do you do it?" I said "how do I do what?" and she said "how do the children know what you are saying?" I told her I had no idea they knew what I was saying. She looked at me and she asked "do you know what they are saying?" I replied "No, could you tell me?" She said "They are calling you mama mzungu- saying that you are their white mother and they are your black children." I was blessed beyond belief when she said that- I obviously knew that in no way, shape, or form were these my children- but I had such a unique love for them- they opened my heart and showed me a kind of hope I have never seen. Needless to say, it was not easy to say goodbye to those kids that night- and I told them that I would be back- in my heart I knew I had to come back to this place.

Fast-forward about 1 year- I headed to Africa again, this time by myself. I was able to head out to Kitto village on my birthday- as we drove up the kids surrounded the car and whispered "mama mzungu, mama mzungu" I couldn't believe they remembered me. I was SO happy to be back and we headed up to the church so we could cut up the birthday cake- little did I know the kids had been practicing the happy birthday song and they had been making me presents all week in school. Each one of the kids lined up (about 75 of them) and they handed me either a doll, soccer ball, or a jump rope that had been carefully crafted by them in school earlier in the week. I couldn't believe the outpouring of love- and yet again this village opened my heart in ways I didn't know possible.

The two girls from the year before- who really opened up to me quickly- had grown, and I was so happy to be able to see them again.

It may sound corny, but this village changed my life. The first time I went there, I was so stuck on ME and all MY problems- I had just finished college and I was worried about jobs, life, where I was going to live etc. In this small village I was humbled- by the children, their kindness, their hope, their love. When I left Africa, their images were burned in my brain, I pray for their well-being and happiness and I know that this place will forever be apart of my life. They gave me perspective, a love for a new country and culture, and I am forever thankful.

 Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.