On Hiatus...

In only 4 more days, I head to East Africa, so I'll be taking a hiatus from this blog in order to keep up with my other blog, lindasreturntoafrica.blogspot.com   I hope you'll consider following my travels, work, learning, and service there. If you have been following these musing of mine, you have some idea of the kind of postings you'll find there, as I travel with and for The Nyanya Project, a non-profit based in Winston-Salem, NC, which works with African grandmothers who are caring for their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren.

As a grandmother myself, I find it difficult to picture my being the sole support of my grands, as much as I adore them. Being with them is wonderful but takes its toll physically in a way being with my children never did...because I was 40 years younger!!! But these incredible women are supporting and caring for 2, 3, 4 or more of their grandchildren as a result of losing their own children to AIDS. They are courageous, strong, determined, and faith-filled, with so much to teach us "haves" about hospitality and welcome and living with little.

Last summer's trip was too brief...I felt like I had barely stuck my toe in the ocean of need in East Africa, like I had had no impact whatever-except perhaps on my own worldview. And so I am returning...with eagerness and excitement and determination of my own. I am so ready to embrace my African friends from last year and to make new ones this summer. I want to listen to their stories and problems and questions...I want to be challenged and stretched and even driven to my knees. For I know from experience that I will once again leave part of myself behind when I come back...and that Africa will become more and more my second home.