thank you so much to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. this last week has be crazy, scary. but most importantly, i am out of the hospital and getting better. it's so hard to know where to begin. it's such a long story and so much emotion goes along with it that it's kind of hard to collect all my thoughts right now. so i will give you the shortened version, leaving out the gory details. this is a conversation i think i should wait to have until i return home. =) lets see...last wednesday night/thurs morn i woke [View Full Entry]

---

---

I've traveled somewhere every weekend since I've been here so I thought it was about time to relax a little bit and stay close to "home." =) Yesterday I came into town and met up with a teacher I work with, Madam Susan. We took a piki-piki from town to her house. (Piki-piki's are motorcyle drivers that act as taxis) I was so excited to be able to spend time with her outside of school! Her husband lives near Nairobi so she lives with her parents, 3 sisters, 2 brothers, and 2 adorable children. She lives farther away from town and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hello everyone! i first want to say how much i LOVE reading the comments everyone has left. it seriously makes my day. also, i don't think i have thanked everyone at SSMS yet for all of your wonderful donations. they are being put to such great use. you all are a blessing! i can't believe it has been a week since i blogged. i hope i can remember everything =) .... school has been going quite well. i feel like i'm getting the hang of things more each day. yesterday i started my letter writing lesson with the third grade class. [View Full Entry]

---

---

yes mom and dad, i went to Uganda this weekend. =) and i'm now back in kenya safe and sound! but seriously, this weekend was probably one of the coolest things i've ever done. i went white water rafting on the Nile! i can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. first of all, we were in Jinja, Uganda and it was soo beautiful! ...huge hills, so much green, trees and flowers! we went through this company called the nile river explorers and there were quite a few people going rafting on saturday and also lots of kayakers . we [View Full Entry]

---

---

This past weekend was so fun! All of the volunteers on the farm traveled to Kisumu, which is right on Lake Victoria. I think there were about 10 of us. Traveling there was quite interesting. It took us 2 hours to drive, which is not bad at all but I think if it was the same distance in the US in wouldn't take much over an hour. This should tell you something about the roads. My butt was so sore from the bumps. hehe... When we got there Saturday we went to the markets which had amazing carvings and souvenirs. I [View Full Entry]

---

---

...finally had time to get some pics on here. =) [View Full Entry]

---

---

Habare!?! (Greetings, how are you you) What an amazing week I have had so far! I've done so much it honestly feels like I must have already been here for like a month. well...i will try to begin from where i left off! so my drive from nairobi to bungoma was actually really cool. i wasn't looking forward to the long drive but it ended up being so neat to see the country side! i was kind of expecting to see just plains, grass, and mountains. which we did...but we also went through so many villages! everywhere you looked everyone was [View Full Entry]

---

---

I finally made it to Kenya! Wow, it has been a long weekend of traveling...and it's not over yet. Yesterday, Sidney (another student teacher from IU) and I had a 10 hour layover in Amsterdam! I was so excited about all the things we got to see/do. We got off at central station, which is right by the red light district. We walked around quite a bit and found a nice restaurant with outdoor seating. The weather was probably high 50s and nice. We had some lunch along with a beer of course. Then we walked around to see the sights. [View Full Entry]

---

---

well it's 6 days before I leave for my African adventure and I have so many emotions! i am so extremely excited, a little nervous, sad and everything in between. I am excited about being immersed in a new culture and living in a way that most of us in southern indiana would never dream of. experiencing new cultures has always been a passion of mine and i can't wait to get to know these people. i can't begin to imagine all of the things i will learn and experience. i only have a fraction of an idea of what to [View Full Entry]

---

---