Journal Entry – Saturday January 28, 2012
It’s very strange getting off the plane today. The visual impact, the sounds, and – of course – the smells…it all comes back at once.
And yet, to me today, it is a strangely welcoming feeling – I would even go so far as to say a feeling of coming home. A feeling of coming back to a place that I belong – or, at least, a place I am supposed to be.
Driving from the airport into downtown, the thickening intensity of the sensory bombardment evokes an oddly peaceful feeling. But there are also momentary waves of sadness – hitting suddenly like a punch in the stomach – as I look closely into the mass of tin and canvas, rock and rubble, eyes and faces…and am once again gripped with the harsh realities of the day to day living conditions here. At one point the sight – and the much darker, putrid smell – of an open stream of raw sewage, running through the city streets, is all at once mind bending and gut wrenching.
It’s not nearly as much fun being here without Bethany to share all this with. I start out feeling like a bit of an outsider, but very quickly I feel embraced by the other team members. Again I am struck with the shared sense of purpose that has brought each of these people to this moment in time.
I am very excited about my job this week as one of the 4 team members who will interview each of the children – very cool, that’s definitely the best job they could possibly give me. For the team devotionals this week, I was appointed official song leader. That’s ok too, another job I don’t mind.
My words from Saturday night last July come back to me: “Tired now. Tomorrow should be interesting.”
