Heavenly beings and neon lights

Life changing I was told and I didn’t know what to make of that. I was almost waiting for the life changing moment I had been told about. I got off the plane, nope my life felt pretty much the same, I got in the minibus still having the same life I did a few moments ago and so it went on. In fact it went on so long I was starting to think I may have missed the life changing moment and what a bummer that would have been. I had been waiting literally my whole life for this moment, and then I go and miss it. I started to get frustrated. These life changing moments should be obvious, I thought, there should be an angel present just before it happens holding a flashing sign saying ‘your life changing moment is just about to occur, please prepare yourself’, just so people don’t miss these moments. I had two weeks in the DRC and didn’t have my angel flashing sign moment. Then I came home. Still no angel and no flashing sign, but I’ve realised life isn’t like that (at least not for me). We’ve posted on this blog about what we did, who we visited and what we saw while in the DRC and it was incredible, sometimes shocking but there isn’t one life changing moment for me to pick out. There were days I laughed with people and days I cried with people and the variety in the trip was brilliant. Two weeks isn’t a massive amount of time but we filled it with an amazing amount of stuff. Now I’m back in the UK it’s all starting to sink in, or perhaps a better way of putting that would be to say now I’m not in the DRC I’m starting to realise how incredible the two weeks were and how much it has given me to think about. It will take a while for me to work out the impact of the trip on me and maybe a while longer before I can communicate that properly but it’s good to get started on that process. I feel passionate about the DRC, the Congolese people and the work Christian Aid does there. I would encourage everyone reading this to not limit their knowledge of the country to what’s on this blog but to take this as a starting point to discover and understand more about what makes the DRC and its people so incredible. Maybe I’m not the best person to judge if the trip has changed me as a person, others could probably judge it better. I don’t think I ever will get my angel and the flashing sign but that doesn’t mean my life hasn’t changed, it’s just more subtle than heavenly beings and neon lights, and I rather like the fact that it is.