Saturday May 31st: Rest & Fun
Saturdays are relaxed days at the Iris Base. The only activity that happens on Saturdays is the Muslim outreach, but because I didn’t sign up for it early enough, I wasn’t able to go. I spent most of the morning washing clothes (I had a large load!) because I had to wash them by hand. I was told that we can have the women from the base wash our clothes for us, but I decided to learn how to hand wash my own clothes.
First, I gathered all of my clothing and laundry detergents and made my way over to the outdoor sink. I had hand washed individual items of clothing prior to this experience, but I had never hand washed a full load of dirty clothes; I didn’t know what I was doing. One of my new friends from the Iris base (whom I will name Samuel because unfortunately, I cannot remember his name!) walked over to me while I was attempting to wash the clothes.
He laughed as he asked me, “Do you know what you’re doing?” I smiled then said, “Mmm…No.” Then Samuel said, “Do you want some help?” I smiled again, then replied, “Okay!” This moment may not have been significant for many people, but to me, even something like learning how to hand wash clothes is a good memory that I will never forget.
Saturday afternoon, Will (our group leader) took a group of us out of town to visit the beach. When we arrived, I sat with two guys from the Iris Base who became mesmerized with my smart phone. I spent most of my time on the shore playing Jesus Culture and Bethel music for the two men and myself. After a period of time, some of my team members and I decided to go for a swim, but it didn’t work out very well for me because my flip flops got destroyed by some unknown suction force as soon as I got into the water.
One of the women from my team, noticing that I was heading back to shore with destroyed flip flops, asked me if I wanted to borrow her shoes to go swimming. I was hesitant at first because they were pink, but then I thought, “whatever, who cares!” After I finished my swim, I walked back to the shore, and some of the children were laughing at me because I was wearing pink shoes.
As soon as I noticed that, I became embarrassed and started to walk faster so that I could take them off as soon as possible. I realized this day that it doesn’t matter what country you live in; it’s just not cool for a man to wear pink shoes. After our team got back to the Iris Base, I decided to spend some time in the Iris prayer hut. While I was there, I asked the Lord why I came on this trip, and He told me, “To show you what you’re made of, and what you’re made for.”
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