Bieber Mango Caring - AKA Part 2

After a relatively-short-yet-unidentifiable amount of time laying in bed weakly praising God (as in practically silent with my eyes close and my brain shutting off but it was still sort of a whispery singing) for keeping me alive and in the company of such loving Christian people, ndshaka hab'la was still in my head. Now Karen gave us a list of Kinyarwanda words before the trip, which Kelly and I were (and still are) really working to incorporate into our vocabulary, and I was vaguely remembering that ndshaka meant something like "I want." As I was pondering this (and life in general--holy emotion overload), I kept thinking, I should ask Karen. Karen. Karen. But I never said it out loud. Still, about two minutes later, Karen walks into my room.
"Did you call me?"
I smiled. "No, but I was thinkin' about it." God is still working.
"Oh! Okay. What's up?"
"Does 'ndshaka hab'la' mean anything in Kinyarwanda?"
I had to repeat it again as she came closer to my bed, because she couldn't hear me.
"Well, 'ndshaka' means 'I want'...and 'habla' means something in Spanish, hey, do you know what 'habla' means in Spanish?"
Oh I knew. I know. I start laughing and cover my face with my hands. To speak. I want to speak.
"So, you just said 'I want to speak' in two different languages. How cool is that?"
...or something to that effect.

So yeah. It sounded more like habala rather than habla or abla (how you're actually supposed to say it in Spanish), but it was close enough that there is no doubt in my mind that Karen's suggestion described exactly what was going on. I wanted to speak, and I did. God was working. God is working, in me, in ways I never imagined. And yet, this is what I expected--the unexpected. Granted, I spent the next day more or less unconscious (sleeping), in bed, and the times I was awake there was all kinds of not good pain in my back and general intestinal area. But nothing was really happening. Then Dr. Imaculee spoon-fed me a few bites of some too-salty, creamy, green chicken soup--which I threw up--took some antibiotics and went back to sleep. And the next day was better, I got up and out of my room more--sat in a plastic poncho on a plastic chair in the rain--checked and sent some emails, but I was still weak and maybe a little cranky. Definitely had another emotional meltdown (with tears, though this one was on a slightly different subject). So it was really hard, and I didn't feel 100% (physically, though I'm still not entirely certain mentally/spiritually) until yesterday (Monday, 1/16), but through it all I knew I had something good here, something worth sharing. And of course, that's when I realized a really powerful truth in that "cliche:" sharing is caring. I want good things for all of you reading this (whether you're a super creep that I don't know that somehow found your way onto this blog, or my best friend), and I believe in the power of testimonies. Honestly, those are always what convict me most in my faith, and what really keeps me searching, exploring my relationship with God.

So basically, what you should glean from this super long blog (in regard to me personally) is this: I got really sick, had a powerful spiritual experience which I will treasure forever, got better, and I'm still rebuilding my life. Big surprise for a college student, right?

God Bless.

P.S. Keep checking our team blog, http://gacrwanda2012.blogspot.com/ (A, because it's awesome, B, because I'll be posting to that one about our last 3 awesome days hopefully tonight), and check out my two latest poems (and everything else on there if you so desire) at http://writelikeright.deviantart.com/

P.P.S. I'm just going to take this opportunity to give a little shout out to some awesome people I've been thinking about, in no particular order (and just because you're not on this list doesn't mean you're not awesome or I never think about you--I promise): Matt, Mike, Anders, Annalise, Emileah, Meredith, Mom, Dad and Erin. And Shannon and Taylor and Kelly D :)

See you all in February! (But don't worry. I'll keep blogging.)