Shy Town.

Neysia, Diana, Tyler, Sasha, and I are all at the Chicago O'Hare Airport!  We're getting ready to board the plane for Frankfurt, Germany here pretty soon, maybe in like 45 minutes or so. 

South Africa, here we come!

Prayers muchly appreciated.

Love you guys. 

Updates are coming.

Pictures too!

As in.

Well, the time's getting close.  The time is getting really close.

As in, I leave in 3 days.

As in, my suitcases are packed.

As in, this is my last weekend in this country.

As in, I'm having to say goodbye to friends and family and places.  Like, real goodbyes.  The kind that hurt.

I'm awful at saying goodbye.  I really am.  I always have been.

But really, nobody's GOOD at them.  Nobody LOVES goodbyes.

...Especially when they come fast, hard, and in multiples.

[we've come a long way, baby.]

[we're going to another country.]

Reminders from Room 430.

I went to see my friend's grandma in the hospital this afternoon.  

Well, first I went to Walmart and bought her some flowers and a card.  Then I signed the card in the parking lot.  And then I went to see her.

I was afraid I wouldn't find her room, or that I'd get the wrong room, or that she wouldn't recognize me and she'd yell for security.  (Okay, maybe I watch too many movies.)

But I did find her room, with minimal difficulty.  She was asleep, so I was just going to set the flowers and card down and not wake her up.  But the flowers were wrapped in crinkly paper, so they made a sound when I sat them down, and it woke her up.

At first she was a little confused, because my face didn't look familiar.  But then when I explained who I was, and that we'd met about 6 years ago, I think she started to remember.  I just told her that I'd heard she was in the hospital and that I wanted to bring her some flowers and see how she was doing.

It reminded me of talking to older people while I was in Lubbock.  My team visited a nursing home once a week for about a month, and I learned a lot.  Older people get so lonely, you know?  It's like they're forgotten.  They just want to talk, they want to be heard.  I understand that I'm generalizing it, and that every situation and every person is different, but that's just my experience.  Nobody likes to feel forgotten, everybody likes to feel heard.  

Seeing my friend's grandma reminded me of that.  It reminded me that I need to not make people I know and love feel forgotten.  I need to do my part, I need to do what I can, to make people feel loved and cared for.  Not because I have to - but because I want to.

It also reminded me that everybody has a story.  I met this woman about 6 years ago, and I knew nearly nothing about her.  She has stories, stories of life and love and loss and pain and good times, stories that I can and should learn from.  

I enjoyed being with her.  It was good for her, I think, because she doesn't get a whole lot of visitors, but it was good for me too.  I needed reminding.

"There is always some madness in love.  But there's always some reason in madness."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Eighteen.

Eighteen days until I leave.  I can't believe it!  I'm nervous and excited and it still seems so unreal.

Visa update: all four of the girls on my team have our visas!  Yay!  Now we're just waiting on the guys.  Keep remembering them when you pray, please.

Housing update: two of the girls already there in Port Elizabeth (Brittney and Liz) found a house that they can share with the four of us girls.  Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, completely furnished - and when we split up the monthly rent, it's close to half of what we were paying in Lubbock.  That's a really, really good deal.  I'm so excited to see our new house!  As soon they send us some pictures, I'll put them up here.

Eighteen days.

Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.

-Arab Proverb

And there's more.

I'm reading a book.

Velvet Elvis (by Rob Bell) - a book about faith and what it looks like, and the fact that it includes questioning.  I really like Rob Bell and the thoughts he has.  He's the guy behind this, and that's where I first heard about him.

I haven't read a whole lot of this book yet, but I can tell that I already like it.  Here's a quote for you.  Enjoy.

Questions, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, are rooted in humility.  A humility that understands that I am not God.  And there is more to know.

Questions bring freedom.  Freedom that I don't have to be God and I don't have to pretend that I have it all figured out.  I can let God be God.

-Rob Bell

South African dinner and Brazilian sand.

My dad made some "South African" food for dinner tonight.  I use the quotation marks not because it was nasty (it was awesome!), but because he found the recipe on the Internet, so who knows if it really is South African or not!  But either way, it was great.  He made some white stuff that was a mix between mashed potatoes and grits, and a tomato sauce that had onions and green bell peppers in it.  It was good and interesting to my taste buds!  I had seconds.  Nicci (one of my best friends who joined us for dinner) had two bites of it - she didn't really like it a whole lot.  Dad, being how awesome and laid-back he is, wasn't offended.  I think he liked it too.

It made me realize how much I love trying new things.  I love trying new foods, reading new books, watching new movies, hearing new languages, seeing new places, learning new stories.  I'm thankful that I have a dad (and a best friend) that like trying new things too.

Today's been a good day, except my back has been hurting pretty fiercely.  Hopefully it'll feel better tomorrow - I'm too scared to go to a chiropractor!

Well, to wrap this up, I want to share a picture with you.  It was taken by Diego, my fellow AIMer.  He's from Brazil - so this is a picture of the names of our team members, written in Brazilian sand!  I thought that was pretty awesome.  Also, a quote from him.

Hum.. if I could just say a phrase resuming my 8 months AIM EXPERIENCE in America… I would say:

“IT´s ABOUT LOVE”

It is not about the language…

It is not about the culture

It is not about you

IT´S ABOUT LOVE. It´s about God´s love. 

-Diego dos Anjos

Not Just A Credit Card.

Here's another update that I forgot to mention.

My team and I had to go through the fairly complicated and ultimately frustrating process of getting our visas to go to South Africa.  There are three consulates here in the States (in LA, in DC, and in Chicago), and you have to apply to one based on where you live.  The consulates all have different paperwork that they require you to have, so the process can get pretty crazy - what I had to have to apply, some of my other teammates didn't have to have, and vice versa.  

But luckily, the Chicago consulate's requirements weren't too hard to meet.  We had to have a letter of invitation from the organization we'll be working with in SA, and a letter from AIM, and a letter from our home congregations, and a physical form filled out by a doctor, and passport pictures, and a travel itinerary...the list seemed to go on and on!  But my team and I were really lucky, because we had a handful of people to help us with this crazy process - the AIM team from last year's class helped us, our coordinators, the mom of one of the girls currently there, and our parents, of course - so it wasn't too hard to keep it all straight.

I sent mine in on May 01, and just got it back yesterday.  It was such an awesome feeling!  That's the last final detail I had to cross off the to-do-to-get-ready-to-leave list.  I have most of my support raised, and I've visited most of my supporters.  I was most worried about getting my visa, but God is good.  God is very, very good and He is very, very faithful.

I think I just needed a reminder.

-Tara

PS: Please remember my team in your prayers, because only 3 of us have gotten our visas so far.  The other 4 visas are very important to our team and to how things will work out over the next few months, so pray hard for us!  And remember - 

Visa.  It's more than just a credit card.

:)