May 25, 2013, Nashville, TN.~

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

This is your friend, Bwame' Ottumbwa, writing.  I do hope this finds each and every one of y'all well.  I am doing very well, thank you.  God has truly been blessing me, and I am grateful!

I have graduated university, majoring in counselling.  I will be counselling people who have overcome great loss or tragedy;.

I figure if they can talk to someone who looks like myself, then that should help them overcome their problems easier than if they talked to someone else who looked ... well, more normal, in appearance.

I will be looking for a job starting next week.  I am eager to get my practice set up and started. 

As you recall when I wrote last time, I have had surgeries done on my face.  Whilst I wear prosthetic cheeks and a fake nose, compared to what my face looked like after the sandfly bit it, I have come a long way.  The prasthetics are a shade lighter than my natural skin colour, but that is small patatoes compared what I looked like before. Without them, I look a fright; it is a reminder of what I have gone through and how far I have come in my recovery.

My surgeries and recovery are behind me; for that I am thankful.  I can move on with my life and strive to have others accept me for me, not for what I look like.  I do hope that people learn to move on past my appearance and see me as a real, living, breathing human being who has dreams just like they do.

That is my ultimate goal.

Well, I don't plan on doing much except have a barbeque on Monday with some friends and go to our all-church picnic tomorrow afternoon at 5:00.  I am looking forward to seeing friends and enjoying the victuals that they will be bringing (I, myself, am bringing my African style potato salad that my mother taught me how to make as a child).  It is very good and it is one of my very favourite meals to prepare/eat.

Othar than that, it is going to be a quiet weekend for me. 

Well, I must go; the doorbell is ringing.  Maybe it is my friend, Roscoe. 

I will write in here again soon; sorry it has been a long while since I last posted.  As you can see, I have been incredibly busy.  Take care, and may the Good Lord bless you as much as He's been blessing me as of late! 

~In His Service,

Your friend in Tennessee, Bwame'.  :)