When you go on a Venture trip to Sierra Leone, you are given a Sierra Leonean name. How neat? Despite that fact that I am practically named after a LARGE water dwelling mammal, I think this is great. Our first day in Banta we went to a village called Ngolala (pronounced GWALLA). We were introduced to all of the village elders, then part of our welcoming was receiving our names. Wmamu means one family. We spent three days in Ngolala doing a day club for close to three hundred children. I have some photos below! It was so great for me. Remember a few posts back when I said my time in the DR was almost too familiar, and I missed the culture shock? Well, being in a new country was awesome. It was like my first mission trip all over again. I was so excited to meet these cute little children and have them be so excited to see me. I am always excited to spend time with them, no matter what country I am in. It was different here, though. It was all so new and exciting. Sierra Leone is Africa, man! I know Malawi is Africa too, but this is what you really expect Africa to look like.
I would like to introduce you to Lois. Look how cute she is! She's very snuggly, too. What a doll. Our last day in Ngolala we didn't get to have much of a formal goodbye with everyone. I was kind of sad, but I knew it was okay because we still all had so many great memories together. I wondered if any of the kids were sad that they didn't get to say bye. Alright, honestly I was just bummed that I didn't get to say goodbye to Lois. I don't like saying that because I don't want you to think I didn't enjoy meeting everyone. I spent lots of time with lots of amazing children. There's always a few, though, that you bond with more. A couple days later Ngolala had a market and Uncle Magnus took us to check it out. Guess what!
