{"id":311,"date":"2025-12-29T21:32:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T21:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/?p=311"},"modified":"2025-12-29T21:32:50","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T21:32:50","slug":"two-weeks-in-africa-that-changed-everything-i-thought-i-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/two-weeks-in-africa-that-changed-everything-i-thought-i-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Weeks in Africa That Changed Everything I Thought I Knew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I spent two weeks in Arusha<\/strong>, Tanzania working with Zoe Empowers<\/strong>, and I came home fundamentally changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not in the Instagram-caption kind of way.
In the everything I thought I understood feels incomplete now<\/em> kind of way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoe Empowers works with underprivileged youth\u2014young people who, by most Western standards, have very little. Limited resources. Limited safety nets. Limited choices. And yet, day after day, I watched kids and young adults who were resilient, creative, determined, joyful, and deeply connected to one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It forced me to confront how narrow my definition of happiness\u2014and success\u2014had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happiness Looks Different When Survival Is the Baseline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., we often equate happiness with comfort. With ease. With options. With \u201cmore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Arusha, happiness looked like community. It looked like shared meals, laughter that came easily, and pride in building something from nothing. These young people weren\u2019t chasing perfection or abundance\u2014they were chasing sustainability, dignity, and agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they were grateful<\/em> in a way that wasn\u2019t performative or forced. It was rooted. Real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I realized how much of my own stress, dissatisfaction, and striving comes not from lack\u2014but from excess. Too many options. Too many expectations. Too much noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entrepreneurship as Survival, Not Status<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most powerful lessons came from watching entrepreneurship in its purest form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wasn\u2019t hustle culture. There were no pitch decks, no buzzwords, no \u201cbuild your brand\u201d nonsense. Entrepreneurship here was about survival\u2014creating income to support siblings, grandparents, entire households. It was about solving real problems with limited tools and unshakable determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reframed everything I thought I knew about privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., failure is often cushioned. Here, success is necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And still\u2014there was creativity, pride, and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privilege Isn\u2019t Just What You Have\u2014It\u2019s What You Don\u2019t Worry About<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I became acutely aware of the invisible privileges I carry. Not just money or opportunity, but safety<\/em>. Predictability. The assumption that systems will catch me if I fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These young people don\u2019t have that assumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, they carry themselves with a sense of purpose that humbled me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It made me question how often I complain about inconvenience while being surrounded by abundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faith, Without the Judgment I Expected<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before this trip, I probably would have labeled myself an atheist. Not in an angry way\u2014more in a this doesn\u2019t fit for me<\/em> way. I\u2019ve long associated religion and faith with judgment, exclusion, and certainty that leaves no room for humanity. Too often, faith felt like a measuring stick instead of a source of compassion. And frankly, I wasn\u2019t interested in being told who I was supposed to be or what I was supposed to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I arrived in Africa with my guard up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But being in Arusha<\/strong>, working with youth through Zoe Empowers<\/strong>, complicated that narrative in ways I didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched faith show up not as judgment\u2014but as grounding. As hope. As a quiet, steady presence in the lives of kids who had every reason to feel forgotten. For many of them, faith wasn\u2019t about rules or righteousness. It was about believing that their lives mattered. That their suffering wasn\u2019t meaningless. That they weren\u2019t alone\u2014even when circumstances told them otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s when the conflict started for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I could see it clearly: these kids didn\u2019t necessarily need doctrine. They needed belief. Someone\u2014or something\u2014to believe in them when they couldn\u2019t yet do it themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That realization unsettled me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Conversation That Gave Me Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point, I shared this discomfort with our pastor Gaston, the Director of Zoe North America. I told him plainly that religion had always felt synonymous with judgment to me. That I didn\u2019t know where I fit\u2014if I fit at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His response was immediate and disarmingly honest:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod is great. Christians can be assholes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It stopped me in my tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because it was shocking\u2014but because it separated something I had always lumped together. For the first time, someone in a leadership role acknowledged the harm done in the name of faith<\/em> without defending it, minimizing it, or spiritualizing it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sentence gave me permission to untangle belief from behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helped me see that my resistance wasn\u2019t necessarily to God\u2014but to how humans so often misuse Him. To the way faith can become performative, exclusionary, or moralizing instead of compassionate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church in Arusha: Belonging Without Labels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most unexpectedly moving experiences of my time in Arusha<\/strong> was going to church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t tell you what denomination it was. I couldn\u2019t explain the doctrine or the theology. And honestly\u2014that didn\u2019t matter at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I can<\/em> tell you is what it felt like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congregation existed in a near-constant state of rejoicing. There was singing, movement, laughter, call-and-response, and an unmistakable sense of community. This wasn\u2019t quiet or restrained. It was embodied. Faith lived in their bodies, in their voices, in the way they interacted with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our group of Americans were the only white people in the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we were welcomed\u2014literally<\/em>\u2014with open arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no hesitation. No side-eye curiosity. No subtle separation. Just warmth. Smiles. Handshakes. Hugs. A clear message that we belonged simply because we were there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That alone challenged so many of the assumptions I had carried about religious spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership That Transcends Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there was Pastor Trice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am certain she is one of the most impactful leaders I will ever encounter in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I watched her preach alongside her interpreter, the two of them weaving seamlessly between English and Swahili. It wasn\u2019t rigid or scripted\u2014it was fluid, relational, alive. The pauses, the rhythm, the shared understanding between them spoke volumes about trust and partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t about performance.
It wasn\u2019t about authority.
It was about connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She led with joy, strength, humor, and presence. And whatever faith tradition this was, it felt expansive\u2014not exclusive. It wasn\u2019t asking who you were or what you believed before welcoming you in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It simply said: You are welcome here.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I witnessed wasn\u2019t belief being enforced\u2014it was humanity being celebrated. Faith wasn\u2019t a barrier; it was a bridge. It didn\u2019t demand certainty. It offered belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defining Faith on My Own Terms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t come home religious.
I didn\u2019t come home converted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I came home with was permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Permission to believe\u2014or not\u2014without judgment. Permission to define my relationship with God, if I choose to have one, on my own terms. Quiet. Questioning. Personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My relationship with God is my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa didn\u2019t give me answers about faith.
But it softened the space where faith might live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it reminded me that sometimes, belief isn\u2019t about being right\u2014it\u2019s about helping someone know they matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That lesson will stay with me far longer than two weeks ever should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hakuna Matata, my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Limited safety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health","category-relationship-health"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Weeks in Africa That Changed Everything I Thought I Knew -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/two-weeks-in-africa-that-changed-everything-i-thought-i-knew\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Weeks in Africa That Changed Everything I Thought I Knew -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I spent two weeks in Arusha, Tanzania working with Zoe Empowers, and I came home fundamentally changed. 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I learned this the hard way recently when someone I had been getting to know sent me a message that basically said: \"I was feeling a bit like you wanted me to respond\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Relationship Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Relationship Stuff","link":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/category\/relationship-health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infirstposition.com\/ovaryactive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}