Post 24 and the last.

I'm not sure where to begin. Ive been doing a lot of looking back over the past couple days and find it hard to believe that my 3 and a half months is up. To meeting Lindsay in Detriot. A $14 peice of bread on Amsterdam. Meeting Eliazbeth in Amsterdam. Meeting my housemates. The first time i ate local food. The first time i saw my kids a fell in love with them. Meeting all my local friends. Club La Liga. Glacier. Mt. Kili. Safari (all of them). Arusha trips. Driving. My frist motorcycle ride. Shooting guns. Lunch at Chrisburger (about a $3 cheeseburger...best deal around). CCS. The apartment. Waterfall trips. No water. No power. Bug nets. The CCS staff. The first time I ate french fries with fried eggs (yummy.). All of my 65 wonderful kids. The first time i got peed on at work. Snot. Biting. The laughs, the tears. The good friends who became as good as family. I'm not looking forward to saying good-byes tomorrow. I'm not ready to say good-bye to Tanzania. This experience has truly been the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I have learned so much about life and about myself. I will be returning a different person than i was when i left. I'm leaving part of my heart here. This place, these people and this culture has become a part of me and has forever captured a big piece of my heart. Though the good byes here will be tearful with long hugs i do look forward to seeing my family. Seeing family and friends will be good.
My heart is sad today. Im just not ready to leave...just not ready. I knew the time here would change me but I didnt realize how much. Its opened my eyes to a whole new way of life....a way of life that i love. I have been to the highest highs and the lowest lows and between all that i found myself. I have found my passion in life. I hate thinking about how its going to be in the states when i cant see my kids everyday and i cant hug them and let them know that there is somebody who loves them, me.
Thank you all for your prayers and support through this whole experience. It defintly made a difference!! You'll never know what all that meant to me!

Love you all... see you saturday.

Post 23

Post 22

Hope everybody is enjoying the pictures! I hope to post some of the apartment tomorrow. I was planning on doing it today but i forgot my connection cord at the apt and its flippin' hot here so i chose not to walk back to the apartment and then all the way back to the Internet...then all the way to town. lazy...whatever...its hotttt!!!!!!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me! I went with a friend, Mussa, to Arusha. He had borrowed one of his friends cars because he knows i hate getting in the buses that take you between moshi and arusha. Its about an hour and a half drive and the drivers of the buses should have never gotten their drivers licenses to begin with. Its awful. So in arusha we ran some errands and went for lunch at his moms house with his sisters, nieces and nephews! It was great local food, a rice and beef dish. I hadnt spent much time in arusha so i was happy that i was able to do that! On the drive back i got a brilliant idea in my head that i needed to drive in tanzania on the wrong side of the road from what ive known my whole life. I shared this with Mussa. He said...sure why not. Excellent! I decided that i didnt want nor need to drive on the road between moshi and arusha so i said id wait until we got back to moshi. It was working out perfectly because the guy who owned the car didnt need it back until about 10pm. So we stopped by mussas house to see his roommate for a while then left to go to an orphanage for the remainder of the evening. This is when my driving took over. Now, you have to remember that the roads have no painted lanes on the paved parts and the dirt roads are really bad....like bad! If there were dirt road like these in america they would be shut down with huge CAUTION and DO NOT ENTER signs posted everywhere. So Mussa keep telling me POLE POLE (SLOWLY) before he gave me the keys. So i drove to the orphange. I was thinking I was doing good but Mussa keep telling me to get in the middle of the road. My thought was 'why the hell would i want to be in the middle of the road???' I never understood but did it anyway because afterall hes a local and im not. I did pretty good driving on the wrong side of the road...and the middle of the road. I drove to the orphange, back to mussas, to ccs to drop some stuff off, and to the apartment. It felt very normal to me to reach for the gear shift on the left instead of right and it felt normal to drive on the other side of the road too. Probably because everyday for over 3 months I have been in cars where the driver is on the opposite side than in america. Heres to hoping I dont get confused when Im driving in America in a week.

SO anyway-- Happy Thanksgiving yall! I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday. I have some special plans with Karyn and our local friends. We are planning an Thanksgiving dinner that has both american dishes and local dishes. It should be a festive time! I must say, I will miss thanksgiving at home. As far as food goes, i will miss cold left over turkey covered in ketchup. And of couse all the other food everybody works so hard on! :)

News travels far. I hear Ole Miss might get a bowl game. It would be awesome if they did AND if i could get a ticket to the game....hint hint. ;)

Michelle --- YCC Party is Dec. 12. Not sure what time. Ask your dad...he should know! You better be there this year!

What else?!?! I guess nothing else for now.

Post 21...

Africa Bowling....my most brilliant idea EVER!

Post 21

POST 20

Post 19

Today was my last day at CCS. I am offically living in an apartment in Africa. Its crazy! I love it! I love the new outlook im going to have. I ate lunch at CCS today and Mama Grace gave a speech about me to all the other volunteers. It was very nice. She was saying how im a survivor and how strong i am. She said I was no longer like a volunteer but part of the family. She told me welcome home because she knew i would be back and could see that this was becoming my 2nd home. It was very nice of her!

In other news, tomorrow i have to leave at 6 am for safari with 45 kids under the age of 7. WHOA!!!!!! What a day its going to be!!!!

Next in the news, there is a water shortage in moshi....who knows when ill shower next???? lol.

Finally, I just realized Ill be home for the YCC christmas party. I look forward to seeing everybody....MICHELLE YOU BETTER BE THERE OR ELSE!