My energy level has been on empty for nearly the whole time I have been in Zambia. It takes me back to my H.S. wrestling days because I feel exactly like I did when I was cutting weight. Upon first glance, there is honestly no reason why I should be feeling this tired. I honestly just lay in my tent for all of our non-ministry time. And that is in addition to the 10 hours of sleep I get every night. So I'll usually spend over half the day laying down in my tent just wondering how on earth I could possibly feel this tired. The good thing is, this time will usually turn into prayers for strength and energy which really makes me rely on God throughout the whole day. Some initial reasons that I had for my tiredness were that I have had a very different diet while I've been out here- lots of rice, oats, and veggies instead of lots of meat, sugar, and cereal. Another reason was that maybe being out in the sun all day walking from village to village was really killing me. But after talking with some people I have come to the conclusion that my tiredness is stemming from spiritual warfare. Sounds kinda weird, but it's honestly true. With lots of ancestor worship and witchcraft going on out here, it really opens up the spirit world. And since we are spreading the Gospel, I guess we are an easy target for them to attack. On the weekends, when we come into town, my energy levels come back to normal when I don't even need them. But right when I get to the village I literally feel my energy drop and then feel like I need to take a nap. I was actually so tired that I took a complete week off from running last week, something I haven't done in years, and it still didn't seem to help at all. Thankfully, God's grace has been sufficient, but it has been really frustrating at times.
So I noticed that my left heel has really been hurting on my runs lately. Since I rarely get injured (thank the Lord), I figured it had to be my shoes that were causing the pain. They had been looking a little beat up and I hadn't switched shoes since I had been to Africa yet. After adding up my shoe mileage I realized that I have 1,482 miles on my current pair which is about 3x the amount that you are supposed to put on a pair. Oops. Hopefully I can limp through these last 23 days without having them fall apart.
For everyone who knows that animals and I don't get along very well, I'm sure you will appreciate this story. Our team of 7 people was visiting a pre-school in one of the villages this past week. When we were standing around outside just waiting around I noticed there was a bird flying towards me. It wasn't very close yet but I noticed how it seemed to be coming right at me. As I continued watching it just kept getting closer and closer. Finally, I realized that this bird was coming right for me! So at the last second I did the most awkward twist/scream/duck in hopes that the bird wouldn't hit me. Thankfully it didn't hit my face but it did hit my head. I couldn't believe why a bird would just fly into my head. Afterwards, my hip was sore for the next day because of the weird twist I had to pull to get out of the way. Maybe it's just my long hair?
We have one more week in the villages and then we will be getting back to Cape Town on June 12. Even though I'm super excited to get back to a bed and a shower, I will miss a lot of the people that I've met out here.
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