mosqueeto nets

It’s 3 am… I am wide awake… and I am in Africa.

Some may think it’s because of jet lag, but really I was sleeping quite nicely out on the balcony, under my mosquito net (pronounced "mosqueeto"), with a cool breeze blowing and the moon just a beaming, until I was awoken by the neighbor’s dogs barking in Swahili. Once awake I realized the entire town of dogs was barking in Swahili and I felt quite like a part of the movie 101 Dalmatians when they sound the dog alert and each bark to the dog in the next town over that the puppies have gone missing. Apparently some Ugandan puppies have gone missing because these guys are going crazy.

I came downstairs to get on the computer and right outside of the window I am greeted by the sounds of an all out dog attack. The little one must be dead because I don’t hear him anymore.

I don’t have much to write about right now other than to say I love it here. I absolutely love it. I love the people. I love their smiles and their hugs. I love their excitement for life despite the little they have. I love their excitement for Jesus… it is so real. It makes me wonder if mine is.

I love Jesus, but these people really, really love Jesus… in a way that I don’t understand because I haven’t experienced life the way they have. They smile when they pray. I wasn't peeking, I could just hear them smiling. They hold our hands, and swing our arms, and they just smile. They smile so big you wonder how it’s possible. It’s one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen… the smile of an African woman.

In reality, I haven’t been here long enough to determine how much I really like it, but I don’t need to be here any longer than I already have to realize that I love it! Getting off of the plane, greeted by smiles and hugs (big bear hugs) from people I didn’t even know was just enough for me to realize I was exactly where I wanted to be.

I came here to love on them… I under estimated how much they would love on me.

And so now I sit here in the main room, knowing I should go back to sleep so I can have energy for tomorrow, but too excited to lay down in fear I may miss something. I want to take in everything. I want to be fully here in each moment. I don’t want to miss one smile, one hug, one laugh… I don’t want to miss a thing! That sounds like a bad Aerosmith song, I know.

I realize the only thing I may be missing at this hour is the dogs barking in Swahili, but there’s something even about that that I don’t mind. Not that I want the dogs to be barking, but hearing a town full of dogs just pierce the sound of the night is not something I hear on a normal basis at home… so it reminds me I am somewhere new. It reminds me that I am in a country so very different from my own. And it reminds me to never get a dog that speaks Swahili. Some people adopt African babies, others adopt African dogs… I will not be one of them.

Don’t worry mom, I’m coming home alone… thus far...

that is... if I come home!