Day Three: Introductions -- Part One

Good morning. I hope you slept well and didn’t get too tangled in your mosquito net trying to get out of bed this morning.

Normal days around here move at a pretty relaxed pace, so I’ll let you take some time to get to know everyone.

Ashley is our resident southerner. She’d describe herself to you as a “homeschooled, Southern Baptist, Calvinist.” We joke that I was homeschooled, Esther was homeschooled for a few years, but Ashley, Ashley was HOMESCHOOLED. She’s okay with that, though. :P She may look like a sweet little, Southern Baptist, homeschooler, but she can be tough as steel and just about as stubborn (which is a good thing in a team of strong willed, passionate people).

At the same time, she has probably grown and changed the most out of all of us since being here. She still likes old movies – her idea of a good movie is one that has never been produced in color – and can talk your ear off about the Civil War if you let her get started in on that one, not that she’s passionate about the subject or anything. But, she now responds to the Somali version of her name (“Asha! Asha! How are you?”), plays constantly with the babies she didn’t know what to do with at the beginning of internship, works in our neighbor’s duka, and all of the people whom she has built relationships with since being here love her.

Esther is also from the South, but she’s from Texas, so, not only is she still proud of the Confederate flag, but she is also proud to be from the only state that can legally A) fly its flag higher than the US flag when they are displayed together and B) secede from the US and become its own country whenever it wants.

She’s our resident adventure queen, always looking towards the future and trying to convince the rest of us to do something “adventurous.” If Esther looks up suddenly and says, “I have an idea!” beware, something you would never think of is about to come out of her mouth (ie. Wanting to put on a bui bui, get in a taxi, and try to drive towards Somalia just to see how far “we” can get). She’s in love with this continent and always thrilled to be doing something “different,” so she’ll enjoy having you around, and will love to milk you for as much wisdom as she can get out of you.

She’s struggled throughout internship with the fact that so much of what we do here is just living life and building relationships in this context, that desire to be doing and seeing new things is just so strong in her that sitting out here where “things” don’t really happen rubs her the wrong way. God has used that to change her though, and she is much more content and willing to be wherever He wants her than she was at the beginning of this adventure – and she definitely has the cleanest Swahili out of all of us!

Melissa is the “baby” out of the team. I’m actually the youngest, but she gets teased about it all the time, for some reason. :P She’s also my fellow Washingtonian, although she comes from the other side of the state. We have fun trying to explain to people here that the weather in her place is more like Nairobi while the weather in my place is more like here, even though we live in the same state.

You’ll probably hear her singing throughout the day, and she has a laugh that carries outside of our house loud and clear. The kids out at Life (and anywhere else she goes) love her and her crazy faces and cool finger tricks. She loves trying out new Swahili phrases (including ones that she finds written in matatus!), and she has grown up a ton since getting here, and there is a wealth of wisdom hiding under all of that goofiness – kind of like another Melissa I know.

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