I haven’t written in a while so I figured that I should let you all know what I am up to and that I am still alive! Between hanging out with giraffes in the National Park, teaching tic-tac-toe to street kids, and hiking mountains to get to church, I have been very busy and having an awesome time! But since I don’t have time to detail all of my adventures I’ll give you a little glimpse of rural Rwandan life as I saw it yesterday. We were going to a church way out near the Congo border which was supposed to take four hours. Now keep in mind that there are 15 of us plus a baby squished in a very beat up van. Every time we go anywhere the driver is putting the van back together. Sometimes it’s a mirror that falls off, sometimes it’s the exhaust pipe. So we begin our adventure at 5:00 am and just down the road the tail pipe falls off, so he fixes that and we continue. Around 6:30 we pop a tire. We spend some time fixing that and then continue. Around 9:00 we start hitting really run down roads as we enter the more rural areas. Many times we had to get out and walk because the van couldn’t make it with so many people. There were many prayers being said as we came close to falling off cliffs, even the translator was talking about meeting Jesus sooner rather than later and the driver kept gasping! About a half hour later we popped another tire – this time we were in the middle of nowhere, but somehow we fixed it and continued. After a series of walking and riding, we made it to this little trail by 10:30. With our butts numb and our backs aching we were happy to finally be there. Except the catch was that we weren’t actually there – now was the time that we had to spend 20 minutes hiking a mountain. After we had been hiking a while we came to this clearing and one of the Rwandans pointed to a little building on the top of the next mountain over and told us that was the church. We thought he was kidding. He wasn’t. So we finally made it a little after 11:00.
Even though it was a huge trek to get there, the views were beautiful!!!! Rwanda is the most beautiful country ever. I wish I could post pictures but you will all have to wait until I get home. The church was great too – I loved it. I only wish that it was easier to get to. Afterwards we went to the house of a church elder and they made us lunch – this was amazing since they were very poor. It was a little sketchy looking and included bones of some sort of animal, but we tried to eat it graciously. I also tried fish. Now I don’t mean fish patty or tuna. I mean a real whole little fish with a head and EYES! Yes, I took a picture of the fish to prove it. I ate its head!!! And those of you who know me well know that I HATE all kinds of fish. So you should all be proud. Anyway, the trip back went the same way, minus one flat tire. But over all I had an awesome time. It was a really great experience and the views were priceless!
So that is a little taste of what I have been up to. E-mail me and let me know how you are doing and what you are up to. DHappel06@hotmail.com I am missing American summer activities (like camp!).
I love you all-
Dana
Monday, July 9, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Lemonade
When life throws you lemons, make lemonade!
Now in the states this expression has a fairly negative connotation, implying that something bad has happened. In Rwanda lemons are a blessing! The girl who sells us fruit came the other day with a whole basket of huge fresh lemons - 15 for a dollar! So we took this opportunity to introduce Rwandans to lemonade. It was my duty to make this refreshing drink. So I squeezed 33 lemons, cooked up the sugar, water, zest, salt, and proceeded to follow the directions. It turned out alright, although I think the fact that the lemon juice sat out for a few days and someone accidentally dumped chicken water in the zest bowl may have altered the taste a bit. But hey, it was lemonade in Rwanda, what more can you ask for?
In other news, I taught my pre-schoolers how to do "high five" so now they all run around giving me high fives! I have it on film so you'll all have to check it out when I get home. I couldn't help but think of Matt as I gave 50 high fives.
On Saturdays older boys from the orphanage come over for "boys group" with Les and last weekend Yvonne and I were invited to join them to give a girls perspective on dating. At first I was a little nervous, considering I am lacking experience in that department, but it ended up great. The boys are so funny and honest - they were all talking about whether they prefer the butt or the chest - one guy was a "skin man". African or American, all guys are the same!
On a sadder note, Emilee's sister is very sick. We've known that she hasn't been doing well so we have been sending leftover uji (the cream of wheat stuff) with Emilee to give to her, but yesterday she took a turn for the worse. She has AIDS and it's taken over her body. Her 5 year old son Adolf is in my English class. We went to visit her yesterday and she is so tiny and weak. She was whimpering from pain and could barely talk. She lives in a tiny 2 room mud house with no water or electricity (like most Rwandans) and the only light is from holes in her roof. The family is scrapping together some money today to take her to the hospital. She can't take medicine because it has to be refrigerated and the family has no way to do that. So please pray for her.
I had another cooking experience last night when Yvonne was stuck in a meeting and I had to figure out how to make spaghetti sauce from scratch! It was a little rough and Mariya had to come help me find things , but in the end it didn't turn out horrible (although I didn't eat it!)
Alright that will have to be it for now. Sorry it took so long for this post but the electricity has been very unpredictable.
I hope you are all doing well. Take care.
Dana
Now in the states this expression has a fairly negative connotation, implying that something bad has happened. In Rwanda lemons are a blessing! The girl who sells us fruit came the other day with a whole basket of huge fresh lemons - 15 for a dollar! So we took this opportunity to introduce Rwandans to lemonade. It was my duty to make this refreshing drink. So I squeezed 33 lemons, cooked up the sugar, water, zest, salt, and proceeded to follow the directions. It turned out alright, although I think the fact that the lemon juice sat out for a few days and someone accidentally dumped chicken water in the zest bowl may have altered the taste a bit. But hey, it was lemonade in Rwanda, what more can you ask for?
In other news, I taught my pre-schoolers how to do "high five" so now they all run around giving me high fives! I have it on film so you'll all have to check it out when I get home. I couldn't help but think of Matt as I gave 50 high fives.
On Saturdays older boys from the orphanage come over for "boys group" with Les and last weekend Yvonne and I were invited to join them to give a girls perspective on dating. At first I was a little nervous, considering I am lacking experience in that department, but it ended up great. The boys are so funny and honest - they were all talking about whether they prefer the butt or the chest - one guy was a "skin man". African or American, all guys are the same!
On a sadder note, Emilee's sister is very sick. We've known that she hasn't been doing well so we have been sending leftover uji (the cream of wheat stuff) with Emilee to give to her, but yesterday she took a turn for the worse. She has AIDS and it's taken over her body. Her 5 year old son Adolf is in my English class. We went to visit her yesterday and she is so tiny and weak. She was whimpering from pain and could barely talk. She lives in a tiny 2 room mud house with no water or electricity (like most Rwandans) and the only light is from holes in her roof. The family is scrapping together some money today to take her to the hospital. She can't take medicine because it has to be refrigerated and the family has no way to do that. So please pray for her.
I had another cooking experience last night when Yvonne was stuck in a meeting and I had to figure out how to make spaghetti sauce from scratch! It was a little rough and Mariya had to come help me find things , but in the end it didn't turn out horrible (although I didn't eat it!)
Alright that will have to be it for now. Sorry it took so long for this post but the electricity has been very unpredictable.
I hope you are all doing well. Take care.
Dana
Monday, June 18, 2007
Greetings from Central Africa!
As promised, I will share a few cultural differences between the good old North Eastern US and Central Rwanda.
- Visitors come over at all hours, any day, unannounced and you are expected to drop whatever you are doing to visit with them. Visiting is a very large part of their culture, but it is difficult to get used to and it is difficult to get thing done when people are always coming over.
- When someone comes to visit you have to escort them part of the way home.
- People are valued very highly here. Family and friends come before anything else, which is why visiting is so important.
- Pairing Rwandans with a stick of deodorant would be a very good combination. People here reek like nothing I have ever smelled before. And considering you greet people by hugging and touching cheeks 3 times on alternating sides followed by a handshake, I get a little too up close and personal with a lot of their smells. At first I thought that they didn't shower but now I know that some (not all) of them do and they still stink!
-Women (and some men) carry everything on their heads from food bags, to couches, to plants, and everything in between.
- Almost every night the electricity goes out at 7 and if we are lucky it comes back on at 9 or 10 but sometimes it's out all night and throughout the next day.
- Church is a big part of peoples lives here (mainly because there is nothing else to do) and they go to church Wed. and Fri. nights for 2 hours and on Sunday mornings it's between 3 and 4 hours. This past Sunday I was at church for over 4 hours in a Kinyarwanda service.
-People are always walking along the streets since most don't have cars so whenever I go out I get followed by crowds of kids calling my name. No one keeps track of the little kids and they just roam on their own.
- Gender isn't a huge issue when it comes to clothes. Generally girls wear dresses and boys wear pants, but people wear what they have. The other day my little buddy Keni who is 4ish was wearing a hot pink shirt that said girl down the side and Emilee (the guy who lives/works here) was wearing a shirt that said woman on the front.
- People also wear the same outfit many days in a row (did you hear that Mom.....you would hate it!) But it makes it easier for me to learn the kids names because they are always in the same outfit.
- Women are named after their oldest child, ie. Mama Eric or Mama Cecil.
-Saying "oh yeah" means "no" in Kinyarwanda!!!!!
- There are many Muslims here and there are three mosques close by and every morning at 4am they play loud music and prayers through speakers. Actually it happens 5 times a day but it's the 4am one that is most noticeable.
- Pay is soo low. The teachers for the Early Learning Program earn 1 dollar a day. The help who clean the house, cook, and do laundry earn 2 dollars a day for working 8 to 9 hours - it's crazy. Things are not cheap here either. They are just as expensive if not more expensive than the US.
- Many people can't afford to eat. Even kids in our Early Learning Program go days at a time without eating - it is really sad.
So that is about it for now, but I'm sure there will be more things that I think of to let you know about. Now I am off to the market as soon as the taxi gets here!
Dana
As promised, I will share a few cultural differences between the good old North Eastern US and Central Rwanda.
- Visitors come over at all hours, any day, unannounced and you are expected to drop whatever you are doing to visit with them. Visiting is a very large part of their culture, but it is difficult to get used to and it is difficult to get thing done when people are always coming over.
- When someone comes to visit you have to escort them part of the way home.
- People are valued very highly here. Family and friends come before anything else, which is why visiting is so important.
- Pairing Rwandans with a stick of deodorant would be a very good combination. People here reek like nothing I have ever smelled before. And considering you greet people by hugging and touching cheeks 3 times on alternating sides followed by a handshake, I get a little too up close and personal with a lot of their smells. At first I thought that they didn't shower but now I know that some (not all) of them do and they still stink!
-Women (and some men) carry everything on their heads from food bags, to couches, to plants, and everything in between.
- Almost every night the electricity goes out at 7 and if we are lucky it comes back on at 9 or 10 but sometimes it's out all night and throughout the next day.
- Church is a big part of peoples lives here (mainly because there is nothing else to do) and they go to church Wed. and Fri. nights for 2 hours and on Sunday mornings it's between 3 and 4 hours. This past Sunday I was at church for over 4 hours in a Kinyarwanda service.
-People are always walking along the streets since most don't have cars so whenever I go out I get followed by crowds of kids calling my name. No one keeps track of the little kids and they just roam on their own.
- Gender isn't a huge issue when it comes to clothes. Generally girls wear dresses and boys wear pants, but people wear what they have. The other day my little buddy Keni who is 4ish was wearing a hot pink shirt that said girl down the side and Emilee (the guy who lives/works here) was wearing a shirt that said woman on the front.
- People also wear the same outfit many days in a row (did you hear that Mom.....you would hate it!) But it makes it easier for me to learn the kids names because they are always in the same outfit.
- Women are named after their oldest child, ie. Mama Eric or Mama Cecil.
-Saying "oh yeah" means "no" in Kinyarwanda!!!!!
- There are many Muslims here and there are three mosques close by and every morning at 4am they play loud music and prayers through speakers. Actually it happens 5 times a day but it's the 4am one that is most noticeable.
- Pay is soo low. The teachers for the Early Learning Program earn 1 dollar a day. The help who clean the house, cook, and do laundry earn 2 dollars a day for working 8 to 9 hours - it's crazy. Things are not cheap here either. They are just as expensive if not more expensive than the US.
- Many people can't afford to eat. Even kids in our Early Learning Program go days at a time without eating - it is really sad.
So that is about it for now, but I'm sure there will be more things that I think of to let you know about. Now I am off to the market as soon as the taxi gets here!
Dana
Friday, June 15, 2007
Hey Everyone!
So now that I have a minute I thought I would give you a little idea of what life is like here.
First a little about the characters I live with:
Les and Yvonne are the missionary couple I am staying with. They are great, loving, funny, and down to earth. Mariya is our cook who lives with us - she is part of the family now. Eric and Emilee are also part of the family. They are both in their early 20's and they work and live here. Eric speaks pretty good English so he does lots of translating for us. He is also a teacher in the Early Learning Program. Emilee is the sweetest guy - he is a lot like a little child. He never went to school so he can't read or write and he doesn't speak English, but he is a hard worker - he is the shepherd. Then we have 6 bible school students who live in a building on the property.
Daily life (for me atleast):
The day starts early in Africa. Everyone is up around 5:00 - although they are not blessed by my presence until 6:30. Breakfast is bread and butter every morning because they can't afford anything more than that. And actually having bread for breakfast every morning means it is a good month. Some months they can't afford breakfast at all. We eat with Eric, Emilee, and Mariya - we feed the bible school students when money permits but they often go without breakfast.
The Early Learning Program starts at 8:00. The kids start waiting at the gate round 7:00, some even earlier. They love school. All their cute little faces start coming in around 8:00 and I get hugs from all 55 of them. We have 45 minutes of singing and story telling. Then they split into their 4 classes and they have 2 subjects, then recreation time and uji (a cream of wheat type drink), and then 2 more classes. They leave at 11:30. I have been teaching them English without a translator so it's been a little hard to keep the class under control - but overall they are really well behaved kids.
We have African food for lunch which is usually a huge plate of beans and something else. I'm not actually sure what anything is - I don't ask because it all looks so gross I figure if I know what it is it will make it that much harder to eat. We have one meal of green mush, another of hard white stuff (which I think is unripe banana), a flour and water mix (like the paste you make in preschool) that drops in your stomach like a rock, and a bunch of other nasty things. I usually eat a little and give the rest to Emilee to finish - that boy will eat anything!
Some days, like today, we take a taxi into town and go to the market where we bargain for vegetables and other things. When you walk along the streets you get followed by people trying to sell anything from soccer balls to mini strawberries to phone cards. Today after returning from town we went down the street from where we live to a vegetable stand to buy from the local people. We got followed by a bunch of kids and adults, because it's so rare to see white people here. The little kids all ran up and were holding my hands as we were walking. It's adorable.
Other days, like yesterday, I go over to the orphanage and play with the kids. I brought balloons over and they had a great time playing with them. You really need to watch them though because they will do anything to get more. I guess they don't have anything so they do what they can to get things - which I understand, but it's frustrating for me. And the older kids pick on the little kids alot.
Yesterday when I was there, my little buddy Moses, who is 3 or 4, from the Early Learning Program, gave me a tour of the orphanage in Kinyarwanda. I'm not sure he grasps the concept that I can't understand him - but it was really cute. The kids there don't have much, 3 to 4 of them sleep on one foam mat on the ground and the whole place is just gray concrete. There is no color. But at least most of them go to school and they get fed. It's better than living on the streets like many kids here do. As I was coming home from the orphanage a few of the 4 year olds walked me home. Yeah, that's right, they walked ME home! As soon as they can walk little kids just roam the streets by themselves and it's fine. Kids from the orphanage just come and go as they please. Even the 3 to 5 year old students go home by themselves and some of them live 30 minutes away - they just walk themselves. It's something that I'm still not comfortable with but that is just the culture.
Dinner is American food! Yeah! Sometimes it's pasta, sometimes it's tuna - so it's usually something good :) After dinner it's bed time by 9:00 since they get up so early. One night I was in bed by 8:00! which seems so early but you get so tired here between the high altitude and all the craziness during the day.
So that is a day in the life of Dana. I'll update later with some more cultural differences because it's very interesting. I hope all is well.
Love
Dana
So now that I have a minute I thought I would give you a little idea of what life is like here.
First a little about the characters I live with:
Les and Yvonne are the missionary couple I am staying with. They are great, loving, funny, and down to earth. Mariya is our cook who lives with us - she is part of the family now. Eric and Emilee are also part of the family. They are both in their early 20's and they work and live here. Eric speaks pretty good English so he does lots of translating for us. He is also a teacher in the Early Learning Program. Emilee is the sweetest guy - he is a lot like a little child. He never went to school so he can't read or write and he doesn't speak English, but he is a hard worker - he is the shepherd. Then we have 6 bible school students who live in a building on the property.
Daily life (for me atleast):
The day starts early in Africa. Everyone is up around 5:00 - although they are not blessed by my presence until 6:30. Breakfast is bread and butter every morning because they can't afford anything more than that. And actually having bread for breakfast every morning means it is a good month. Some months they can't afford breakfast at all. We eat with Eric, Emilee, and Mariya - we feed the bible school students when money permits but they often go without breakfast.
The Early Learning Program starts at 8:00. The kids start waiting at the gate round 7:00, some even earlier. They love school. All their cute little faces start coming in around 8:00 and I get hugs from all 55 of them. We have 45 minutes of singing and story telling. Then they split into their 4 classes and they have 2 subjects, then recreation time and uji (a cream of wheat type drink), and then 2 more classes. They leave at 11:30. I have been teaching them English without a translator so it's been a little hard to keep the class under control - but overall they are really well behaved kids.
We have African food for lunch which is usually a huge plate of beans and something else. I'm not actually sure what anything is - I don't ask because it all looks so gross I figure if I know what it is it will make it that much harder to eat. We have one meal of green mush, another of hard white stuff (which I think is unripe banana), a flour and water mix (like the paste you make in preschool) that drops in your stomach like a rock, and a bunch of other nasty things. I usually eat a little and give the rest to Emilee to finish - that boy will eat anything!
Some days, like today, we take a taxi into town and go to the market where we bargain for vegetables and other things. When you walk along the streets you get followed by people trying to sell anything from soccer balls to mini strawberries to phone cards. Today after returning from town we went down the street from where we live to a vegetable stand to buy from the local people. We got followed by a bunch of kids and adults, because it's so rare to see white people here. The little kids all ran up and were holding my hands as we were walking. It's adorable.
Other days, like yesterday, I go over to the orphanage and play with the kids. I brought balloons over and they had a great time playing with them. You really need to watch them though because they will do anything to get more. I guess they don't have anything so they do what they can to get things - which I understand, but it's frustrating for me. And the older kids pick on the little kids alot.
Yesterday when I was there, my little buddy Moses, who is 3 or 4, from the Early Learning Program, gave me a tour of the orphanage in Kinyarwanda. I'm not sure he grasps the concept that I can't understand him - but it was really cute. The kids there don't have much, 3 to 4 of them sleep on one foam mat on the ground and the whole place is just gray concrete. There is no color. But at least most of them go to school and they get fed. It's better than living on the streets like many kids here do. As I was coming home from the orphanage a few of the 4 year olds walked me home. Yeah, that's right, they walked ME home! As soon as they can walk little kids just roam the streets by themselves and it's fine. Kids from the orphanage just come and go as they please. Even the 3 to 5 year old students go home by themselves and some of them live 30 minutes away - they just walk themselves. It's something that I'm still not comfortable with but that is just the culture.
Dinner is American food! Yeah! Sometimes it's pasta, sometimes it's tuna - so it's usually something good :) After dinner it's bed time by 9:00 since they get up so early. One night I was in bed by 8:00! which seems so early but you get so tired here between the high altitude and all the craziness during the day.
So that is a day in the life of Dana. I'll update later with some more cultural differences because it's very interesting. I hope all is well.
Love
Dana
Monday, June 11, 2007
Finally!!!! yesterday i spent almost 2 hours trying to post on here but i couldnt figure out how since it was all in french. i thought it was kinyarwanda but its french and i speak more kinyarwanda than french. Luckily i figured out how to change the language to engligh now.
I dont have much time to write today but i wanted to give you all a little update. After having been sick all weekend i am finally feeling better today. I puke my guts out on saturday 7 times and had a 102 degree fever. It wasnt fun but i am feeling much better.
Saturday morning before i got sick I went over to the orphange to spend some time with the kids. It broke my heart to see which of the kids from the early learning program are in the orphanage. The kids there are adorable. there is a six month old, atleast that is my estimate, baby there who is adorable. I want to bring her home with me! her name is debbie.
I have to run because i am in the internet cafe again and we are running to the store now but hopefully in my next post Ill be able to write about what daily life is like here becuause boy is it different.
I hope you are all having fabulous summers! Eat a hamburger for me.
I dont have much time to write today but i wanted to give you all a little update. After having been sick all weekend i am finally feeling better today. I puke my guts out on saturday 7 times and had a 102 degree fever. It wasnt fun but i am feeling much better.
Saturday morning before i got sick I went over to the orphange to spend some time with the kids. It broke my heart to see which of the kids from the early learning program are in the orphanage. The kids there are adorable. there is a six month old, atleast that is my estimate, baby there who is adorable. I want to bring her home with me! her name is debbie.
I have to run because i am in the internet cafe again and we are running to the store now but hopefully in my next post Ill be able to write about what daily life is like here becuause boy is it different.
I hope you are all having fabulous summers! Eat a hamburger for me.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
i made it!
i want to appologize now for all of my spelling and grammer mistakes that will be in this post. The keybord here is very different and the keys are in all of the wrong places. I am in an internet cafe so i do not have a lot of time to type.
My flight over here was not bad. I went 8 hours from DC to Rome, stayed on the plane there and then went 6 hours to ethiopia and on those flights I had two seats to myself so i could stretch out. it was nice. then i had a 2 hour lay over in ethiopia and i changed planes then had a stop over in kenya and i finally got to Rwanda on monday afternoon. There was a group of Rwandans there to greet me so it was nice! For the drive to their house we took a 18 person taxi and i couldnt believe how many people there were walking along the road and i seriously thought that we were going to hit some of them, but we didnt and now im getting used to their driving.
Yesterday and today i helped out at the early learning program which is the 3 to5 year olds. I love them so much. They are adorable. when i first went outside and met them they all ran up to me and were touching my skin and playing with my hair. They still love touching my skin. I am impressed with how well they listen. i guess they zere crazy at first but now they listen very well. Im going to be teaching all 4 classes of the early learning program english. I taught one clqss today but it was hard becuqse i had no helped to translate for me. Usually I will have eric translting to the kids. They know their colors, numbers, and body parts in english and we are working on the alphabet now. I will post some picture of them later once i take some and if i can figure out how!
we also had childrens day on tuesday where 230 kids came and they sang songs and such. It was really cute.
alright, i have to go now because i only have 10 minutes left at the computer and this website all comes up in the native lqnguqge kinyarwanda it may take me that long to figure out how to post it. I hope that you are all doing well!! take care. Dana
i want to appologize now for all of my spelling and grammer mistakes that will be in this post. The keybord here is very different and the keys are in all of the wrong places. I am in an internet cafe so i do not have a lot of time to type.
My flight over here was not bad. I went 8 hours from DC to Rome, stayed on the plane there and then went 6 hours to ethiopia and on those flights I had two seats to myself so i could stretch out. it was nice. then i had a 2 hour lay over in ethiopia and i changed planes then had a stop over in kenya and i finally got to Rwanda on monday afternoon. There was a group of Rwandans there to greet me so it was nice! For the drive to their house we took a 18 person taxi and i couldnt believe how many people there were walking along the road and i seriously thought that we were going to hit some of them, but we didnt and now im getting used to their driving.
Yesterday and today i helped out at the early learning program which is the 3 to5 year olds. I love them so much. They are adorable. when i first went outside and met them they all ran up to me and were touching my skin and playing with my hair. They still love touching my skin. I am impressed with how well they listen. i guess they zere crazy at first but now they listen very well. Im going to be teaching all 4 classes of the early learning program english. I taught one clqss today but it was hard becuqse i had no helped to translate for me. Usually I will have eric translting to the kids. They know their colors, numbers, and body parts in english and we are working on the alphabet now. I will post some picture of them later once i take some and if i can figure out how!
we also had childrens day on tuesday where 230 kids came and they sang songs and such. It was really cute.
alright, i have to go now because i only have 10 minutes left at the computer and this website all comes up in the native lqnguqge kinyarwanda it may take me that long to figure out how to post it. I hope that you are all doing well!! take care. Dana
Saturday, June 2, 2007
And the journey starts...
It's Saturday morning, and in a few hours my mom and I are driving down to Washington DC, spending a night in a hotel, and then my plane takes off tomorrow morning. We have a "technical" stop in Rome to refuel and then I have a 2 hour lay over and plane change in ethiopia. It's 15 hours to ethiopia and then another 4 or so to Rwanda. It should be fun! heh.
I finally got my passport on Thursday. After having submitted my papers over 2 months ago I still didn't have my it so I called them 2 weeks before I was leaving- they said they would put a rush on it and I would have it in a week. Over course I didn't, so I called two more times and finally they made me an appointment in NYC to get an emergency passport. We had to get up at 5am and we were in the city waiting in a long line on a street corner by 7. Over 5 hours later I finally had my passport. Yeah, that was fun. But I'm finally all set to go. My bags are packed, the house is clean (we have having an open house tomorrow to try to sell it- so the house had to be spotless), and most of my goodbyes have been said. Now it's just a few short hours until I'm off.
I'll write when I get there :)
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