Beth Bounds, OneWay Intern:

Oh today was an amazing day for sure! It was my favorite and the fullest. We awoke at 6:30 to be at the school by 8 am and finally making it out to a village from the sand roads by about 10 am. On our way we found some elephants! They were massive and majestic. I was so happy to have seen some wildlife. I’d been praying all morning that we would see something.

Once we got to Sankoyo, we played some games with about 100 children from the school and told some Bible stories. They seemed to really enjoy what was going on. After a couple hours there, we parked over at a soccer field across the road and pulled out our food and enjoyed. We played with many kids that came over and one in particular stood out to me. She was beautiful and held a coin of some sort. She was wearing just a pair of pink underwear. We played “patty cake” and she just seemed to really enjoy the attention. It was a beautiful sight to see these wonderful children playing out on the dusty field. They came with just a tiny ball and we left them with a soccer ball.

Many people went out to do outreach at the different houses around but a couple of cars went exploring. While exploring, we found about 7 giraffes! They were absolutely amazing. We hopped out and climbed onto the car to get a better view. They were breathtaking. (As is almost everything here!)

We made it back and attended the storying service just like the one a few nights before. We weren’t allowed to be wearing pants so we wrapped a blanket around ourselves and went to participate. Three girls and I sat on the bottom part of a tree. I really love that Africans have no personal space. This is just my style! I had one girl with her arm resting on my back, another her elbow resting on my lap, and Kelly (who I’m living with next week) holding my hand.

They finished telling the stories and we piled back into the cars for another drive back. On the way back we spotted a giraffe really close to the side of the road! It was amazing!! All in all, we saw like 8 giraffes and 5 elephants and many many beautiful children.

The people here are so receptive and loving. I feel so welcome. I’m finally over my jetlag and almost slept through the whole night! I woke up twice but refused to open my eyes and finally fell back asleep. The rain has stopped. Today was such a wonderful day. It was very warm and not a cloud was in sight.  It was just amazing to spend more time with the people from the missions school and spend some time with some random kids playing. The African animals were breathtaking too. I can hardly believe it all! Please keep praying. The rest of the team leaves some tomorrow, and some Saturday. God is good. He has provided more than we could possibly ask for. Thank you for being a part of that. And thanks for tuning in. The intern’s bedtime is sadly approaching.  Hakuna Matata.

~Beth Bounds AKA Betty
(Thank you to my beautiful African friends who find Bet much easier to say that Beth)