Those Who Have No Name

Chapter 1

Bria sat in the Heathrow Airport, dozing lightly. She had left early in the morning from her home in North Carolina for her flight to London, the first leg on her journey to Gamyala, West Africa. It had been a tiring eight-hour flight. Her next flight left at midnight, London time and Bria was determined to get as much rest as she could.  Another eight-hour flight awaited her in a couple of hours but at least it would bring her to Gamyala. Bria was excited and nervous. This was her first time traveling completely on her own. Her parents were reluctant for her to go, worried about the dangers of traveling abroad, especially in a country they weren't familiar with. But Bria persisted, certain she would be safe and wanting the chance to experience freedom and adventure for the first time. She didn't mention to her parents that she was also searching for something she couldn't quite grasp, something that felt buried deep inside her that she couldn't quite unearth while she remained at home. Maybe being in a place where everyone and everything was completely unfamiliar would help her discover herself. Maybe she could become comfortable with herself and becoming a foreigner would help her no longer feel like an oddity. Bria longed to find a place that truly felt like home and she was willing to travel the world to find it. She had felt like an outcast for so long. Growing up as the only hard of hearing kid in her hometown that she knew of, she had often felt isolated and shut out from everyone. The bullying she received from her classmates and the kids at church didn't help. She sometimes felt like she couldn't breathe under the weight of their stares and whispers, the weight of always feeling like she was different.  But ironically it was her church, the place where she felt the most alone, that provided the means for her escape.

Bria remembered seeing the notice in the church bulletin a few weeks ago. Her church was very focused on missions and supported several missionaries around the world. They regularly did mission trips, even for the youth group. Not that Bria had ever gone on one. She had been excited when she was finally old enough to be part of the youth group, hopeful that she would make friends. But the clique of popular kids, led by the pastor's son and daughter, had steadfastly ignored her and frequently seemed to be making fun of her whenever she glanced over to them from where she was sitting by herself. The youth pastors seemed to be more focused on trying to be cool and accepted by the popular kids than making sure everyone felt included. They made no effort to reach out to Bria. After going to the youth group meeting twice, Bria stopped attending and never returned. She stayed with her parents in the main service on Sundays and on Wednesday night Bible Study. She was a faithful church attendee but never felt like she connected with anyone there. Mostly she sat and stared at the church bulletin or read her Bible during the services. She struggled to understand the pastor when he preached, usually only catching every other word. It was exhausting trying to follow what he was saying so she soon gave up. She could learn the Bible on her own anyway. There were plenty of apps and online studies.

Bria was once again studying the church bulletin when she saw the notice. A missionary couple in Gamyala had sent out a request for someone to join them for the summer. They were going to be running a children's camp while school was out and needed an extra hand. It sounded fun to Bria. She had always liked being around little kids. And it wasn't like she was doing much anyway. She had gotten her Associate's degree in Life Science at the local community college but she hadn't felt motivated to continue. Despite the fact that she was an avid reader, Bria had struggled in school, especially with anything math-related. Her hearing loss had required her to focus intently while listening to her lectures in order to understand what was being said. She typically missed words and sometimes whole sentences while listening to someone talk and felt like she was constantly playing catch-up, mentally filling in the blanks on what she didn't hear so it would all make sense to her. Sometimes she guessed right, other times she didn't.

Bria also used lipreading to help her understand what someone was saying. That made taking notes challenging as she couldn't read her professor's lips while she was writing. Anytime she would bend her head to take notes, she would lose track of what her professor was saying and her notes would end up being a jumble of half-finished sentences. Bria was usually exhausted by the end of class so she tried not to have more than two classes on the same day. Her incomplete notes made it difficult to study and she usually had to reteach herself the material. Bria found it difficult to focus in class, frequently finding herself daydreaming, seemingly beyond her control. She blamed herself for being inattentive. If only she could focus more, then she could do better. She loved to read, loved learning about the subjects she found interesting. But she had never found math interesting and probably never would. Though she excelled in social science courses such as sociology and psychology, she struggled with anything math-related. As a result, her overall GPA was mostly in the C and B range. Bria had thought about pursuing a career in the health field but by the time she graduated, she was ready to take a break. She had spent the year after graduation working as a book reviewer and blogger but she felt unfulfilled. At 21, she was ready for her life to begin.