Lace apron

I finally have internet again. What should I write? I was going to have journal entries to keep everyone up to-date but after re-reading some of them I've decided I shouldn't post everything....too personal. So, I am going to be selective in what I write. I do want everyone to know what God is doing in my life so the posts you'll read is what I've been experiencing the past week. Enjoy! Ha!

6-10-10
The most challenging thing I've had to deal with is understanding the role of the women in the Maasai culture. The women do everything around here: they make the houses (out of sticks, mud and cow dung), they prepare the food (serve men first), they clean, have babies, take care of the children. Women go through circumcision around the age of 14 and are given to a man a few months later, they can't even choose their own husband. The more items the Maasai men have the wealthier he becomes so the men try to gain as many women as they can afford and try to have as many babies as possible. Women have very little rights, they can't decide anything on their own and it makes me sad. There are so many expectations and the women have to meet them. This culture paints an even bigger picture in my mind as to how men are lazy beings, who take women for granted. No one marries for love, they marry because it is required. It seems everywhere I look I see relationships fail, not representing what God had intended and it makes me sad.

Me and MB were cleaning and Chris our language teacher told us that we were doing really good, the "work of women." It made me so mad! It is not my job to clean, men are very capable of cleaning. I understand that Chris is very proud of his culture as I am of mine (most of the time). Me and MB are asked to serve the men chai and bread and butter and it is killing me, one of the most humbling things ever. I love serving but not when I am told or expected to. I never thought I would have a problem in serving but here I do, it's eating me alive! I know people would probably say I'm silly and just get over it but I can't. I question as to why I am so strong-willed and opinionated...I don't have an answer for that question. Ha!
I hate lace. I don't like aprons. I was talking to a guy friend once and he said something that has really stuck, "Anna, sometimes I believe God calls us to do things we detest and for you it might be to stick on that lace apron and serve." He wasn't saying literally stick on a disgusting old lace apron, but he was saying you have to be willing to serve even when you really dislike it. That is exactly what I have been doing. I've been putting on the lace apron and serving. It's humbling but God is teaching me through it.

"Experience is a doorway, not a final goal."
-Oswald Chambers