Live your life with arms wide open.

I know i just put up a blog post...but I just needed to tell you guys about what happened this morning. I have tears in my eyes while writing this (happy tears of course).

I walked to my placement this morning and to my surprise no kids came out to jump me..I found out from someone that school was cancelled for the rest of the week...so I think I'm going to be volunteering at an orphanage this week...which is extremely exciting!! Anyways...so I had 4 hours of free time and so instead of walking home i decided to explore a bit..I found this amazing spot that is so beautiful. There was a big rock overlooking this river that was breathtaking...its hard to explain what it looked like but it felt like i was living in a post card. I was able to really reflect on what I had seen so far and just be silent for a bit. I realized more than ever how beautiful life is in that moment. I wish i could take out these feelings i have and put them into words but it is simply to indescribable. I realized that I have my whole entire life ahead of me...and I have the freedom to whatever Id like to. I feel like I have a book that's completely blank in front of me and I get to decide whats put in it. Which is a little terrifying..but mostly incredible. I am shaking with excitement right now. How beautiful life could be if you put aside your fears and went after your dreams. The possibilites are endless.

Ok sorry for the ramble...moving on... So I left the rock and started walking back home...of course i got a little lost...typical monica...but thats ok...getting lost is half the fun. and out of no where a little girl from my nursery school runs up to me! Her names Coletta and shes an absolute doll. She brought me to her home where the rest of her family was...she has a sister named lucia, and brother named james, and older sister named anna, her grandma named anna and her mom named Janet...they were so welcoming! They brought me into their house which was made of some sort of mud i think...It was small, it had no doors, no washroom, nothing fancy at all...but yet it felt like home. The language differences was a big problem...but I figured things out. The grandma changed Coletta into her Sunday dress to show respect towards me and I taught all the kids English. I gave all of them bracelets...and the grandma was freaking out and repeatedly thanking me...they kept looking at them with such gratefulness...it brought me back to all the gifts i had received and how i had received so much more than them and yet they were more grateful...for a little bracelet. Man, I have a lot to learn from these people. I made the kids little origami paper cranes and they loved it...they didn't put it down once. They gave me chai tea...which i have to admit was extremely hard for me to drink because it didn't taste like tea...and i have a sensitive gag reflex...but i got through it. As I was leaving the grandma gave a bag to Coletta and spoke Swahili to her...Coletta gave the bag to me and looking in it i found 8 chicken eggs. In that moment I was very touched and thought about how little they had and how they just shared everything with a random stranger. But it was not until I got home did i realize just how big that gesture was. I told the director what had happened and he looked so surprised. He got really excited and told me that receiving eggs here is a sign of ultimate respect and love. He explained how those eggs were meant to be chickens but since that family was so touched by me they chose to give the eggs to me instead. How can a poor family like that be capable of such love and generosity? How can they be so kind to a stranger? How can they give not only what they have but what they need to someone they just met? I'm so touched.

Sorry for such a long post! I just had so much to share!


LOVE!
Monica