Just a day in the life. . .

A few weeks ago, I posted about the day that the Semester at Sea students came to visit and we did a feeding program for 1,200 children in Tema New Town. One of the comments from that post was from one of my best friends, Christina Kolding, and she told me that she can't believe I get to live this life. Sometimes, my life here feels absolutely NORMAL, and yet other days, like that day a few weeks ago, or a day like today, I feel like I am living this crazy adventure that few ever get to experience.

Today, we drove out to Doryum, where we plan on moving at the end of this month, to discuss some paperwork issues that we've been having with one man who has been "helping" City of Refuge for the past year. We met up with the assemblyman (like the mayor of the town) when we arrived and then took him for a drive to see the houses we'll be renting and the work that needs to be completed before we arrive at the end of the month. I also got to see the building that we'll be renting for the school. It's an open air building, but I think it will work out ok if we put some misquito netting up in the windows. We'll have one room where we can lock things up as well, so that will be good.

Eventually, we ended up back at the assemblyman's house to meet with a man about paperwork that was being held up. After some long conversations, we were taken to meet with one of the village chiefs. He was sitting underneath a tree and after bowing and shaking hands, we were asked to sit down to discuss the paperwork that we need to begin building. This man, he was a sincere and well-educated man. He spoke English very well, and I felt that his heart was exactly in the right place. He spoke about wanting to leave a legacy for this community behind by allowing us to use the land to care for the orphaned of Doryum. I look forward to what is ahead for us there!

After our meeting with the village chief, John and Stacy took me to see the land that had been given to them. It was down this crazy, muddy dirt road. We are definitely PRAYING for a 4-wheel drive vehicle because there was quite a few times that I was praying we would get out of there without getting stuck. We didn't get out of the car because it was so muddy, but we did get a glimpse of the 20 acres that we'll be building on soon. Exciting!

And then, it was back home for school prep. Back to normal life. One minute adventures in the village, and the next minute, back to life as usual. I've got to use my time better during the week so my weekends aren't sucked dry by school prep, but I'm hoping that each week will get easier and easier.

Yep, just another day in the life of Autumn Buzzell. . .