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Chris Jones with a group of children in Africa.
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Chris Jones, FRCC alum, building schools in rural Africa.
Greetings from Chad, Africa,
It was great to hear from you, thanks for taking the time to write, it means a lot to me to hear from friends back home.
Today has been a challenging day in central Africa, but I am in a challenging place. I have been working most of the day on a progress report for our school construction projects. It is 9:50 at night, and my concentration and ability to work is losing ground fast as I have been at it today for over 14 hours.
This is probably the most challenging thing I have ever done because it tests my abilities, stamina, and will to the fullest. Yet I am happy and thankful to be here. This isn’t a job that you wake up and dread, but rather you wake up and embrace the challenges of the day with a passion and commitment to make things better.
You asked what is going on inside me - wow, what a question! The process of reflection will take months, perhaps years for me to fully understand and appreciate my experiences here. Yet this is also a place where I can experience every emotion in a single day. Frustration, anger, happiness, joy, sadness, shock, and being scared are all things that I experience on a daily basis.
I try to live in the moment, I try to recognize, respect, and appreciate the people around me. I try to keep positive and focus on the good things that I see - It helps me maintain hope, and hope is what sustains me in the most difficult moments.
Being here brings me a meaning to my life that I just can’t get back home. I really feel like I can make a difference and be a part of things that are good, and I am able to work with really amazing people.
I hope to hear from you soon, and please send my regards to everyone at FRCC - I really miss a lot of people there :-)
All the best,
Chris
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