The last time you heard from me I had malaria, and was having one of the toughest weeks of my life. This time around I’m very happy to say I’m malaria free! That is something I can say I don’t ever want go through again, but this blog won’t be focused on malaria too much. It will be more on life. My life in particular.
During the the period of 2 weeks of laying in bed for most of my days. I had a lot of time to think. I’m very grateful and humbled to be in Manica. This place has definitely left a mark on my life and changed it for the better. People here are the friendliest human beings in the world. They don’t care about the color of your skin, your religion or beliefs, or anything of that sort. As soon as I met the people of the club and the town; I realized this which I previously mentioned. They made me (a complete stranger) feel welcome and at home as soon as they met me. If the entire world was filled with people like the ones here in Manica it would be an incredible place. That’s a big thing that has had a major impact on me and the way I see things.
Another is just the way of life here. People here aren’t worried about how many likes they’ll have on Facebook, or if they are having a bad hair day. Things that I here people constantly complain about back home. They don’t have the luxury to be worried about petty situations such as those. They live as happy as they can live and don’t worry about the rest. Constantly at my community sessions that I coach at for the kids; I see kids with tattered clothes, and if they are shoes in those same conditions because most of them don’t even have shoes to play in. Yet the kids have the biggest smiles on their faces when they see you. Kids walk for miles to come to one of the sessions. It makes me so grateful for everything I had as a kid and everything I have now.
Now more than ever I’m grateful for every sacrifice my parents made for my siblings and I. My background for those that don’t know is that I come from a Mexican family. I’m the first generation of my family to be born in the US. I’m very very proud of my Mexican heritage, and of being born in the US. There are no words to describe how proud I am of my parents. They moved to a new country, where they didn’t speak the language. They didn’t have much coming to the US, but still made the best of everything. My dad has worked almost every single day of his life since he was 5 years old, and has never complained once about anything. They came to America to give their kids a better life than the one that they had back home. There is nothing I can do to ever repay them. Being here has made me realize what is most important in life, and that’s your family, friends, happiness, and health. All the material objects and money don’t mean a thing if you don’t have any of those.
Just be able to be walking around without feeling like I’m going to die anymore feels amazing. For those two weeks, I couldn’t eat, move, or do what I love to do the most which is coach and play football! This last week was my first week back to coaching because it was the first couple of days that I genuinely felt OK; not good, but ok. By the end of the week I was back to playing. I even played an 11 aside match on Saturday. That was the best feeling I had since getting malaria. Just to be out there running again was amazing. That’s another thing this place has put into perspective for me. Being able to be healthy again means the world to me. The people here were extremely helpful in the process of getting me back to normal. I can’t thank them enough for that. A stranger that they barely know, but yet took care of like if he was one of their family members. That still amazes me and shows me that there are amazing people in this world, you just have to explore it.
Another big thing that happened this week was that we had two volunteers here that were doing different work for and around the club that left. They spent 6 weeks with us and were some amazing people. They are Jake and Kinvara. I learned a whole lot from both of them. One memory that I’ll have for the rest of my life is when Jake and I sat outside and watched the craziest lightning/thunder storm for about an hour. At first the guys and I were a little skeptical about them, but after a couple of days we found out they were great people to be around. In honor of their last night the Club threw a huge dinner party. Where there was some amazing food and people. They sang and danced to a lot of what I’m assuming is traditional mozambiquen songs. Kinvara and I got malaria around the same but got through it luckily! They will be missed by everyone here at the Club.
So next time your having a bad hair day, your running late, can’t find your keys, or whatever it may be, and your freaking out and making things worse. Just take a moment and relax. Things will work themselves out as they should. I’m going to quote Pingy on this next line that goes, “life is funny, and you just have to go along and laugh with it”. Stay tuned til next time!
