It's been a long time...

I've been out of this for a while, so I'll get you up to speed. Let's back it up a little...Coming home was fantastic (see prior post). I spent my first week home remembering my old easy life - driving anywhere I wanted to go, taking showers though I'm not REALLY dirty (because I now know what REALLY dirts means), seeing and talking to my friends and fam at will, and eating all the good food this country has to offer. Here's one of me with my girls Amber and Ashauna out on my first weekend home. Such great times!

Then I went to Shanghai and life accelerated a little. Everything is fast in Shanghai - quite the opposite of Burkina. We went sightseeing, hit some good restaurants, caught a great concert.
Me with my brother at the Bund downtown Shanghai. It was freeeezing!
The view from my brother's balcony. Breath taking.
And the view from his bathroom. What 25 things in this picture indicate you're not in Burkina anymore?

And now I'm back for America in April - Phase II.

People keep asking me if I want to go back to Burkina now that I'm home and it wasn't until last night that I truly thought "I need to get back there." I got off the plane from China, took a shower to get ready to meet some friends out and started to worry about what I was going to wear. Reality check - who cares? 2 weeks in and I'm back to worrying about the stuff I hated worrying about before I left. Man, life in Burkina is not easy - it's freakin' hard! But that's why I went there in the first place. Yeah, I gotta get back to the simple life where it's harder to forget the important things in life.

To all my fellow volunteers toughing it out in April in Burkina right now - keep up the good work! I know it's hot, but you're helping to make somebody's life a little better and that's what it's really all about.

Oh it's goooooooood

I made it home safely and I must say it is gooooooood! I wasn't on U.S. soil for more than 20 minutes before I had a grande nonfat chai at Starbucks in the JFK airport. That's the way to start it off right!!! I have a new temporary cell number for those who want to get in touch while I'm here...(317) 796-0968. Things are fantastic so far! It's frrrreeeeeezing, but other than that everything is perfect! I had sushi tonight and am standing on carpet (these feet haven't touched carpet in 6 months and it feels so good - it's the little things I miss:) and I am in heaven.

To those in the U.S. - call me!
To those in Burkina - you should be sooooo jealous;) miss you guys!

I'm outta here

I am officially on vaca. I get home Tuesday night, so get at me sometime while I'm home.
I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time - in part because I was sick for so long and it's just nicer to be in familiar territory when you're sick, and in part because I miss my fam and friends like crazy. But a couple of times as I was saying my goodbyes to everyone here I felt the early signs of maybe missing this place while I'm gone. I know! Call me crazy!


Things I may not miss:
1. 108F in my bedroom last week (I'm not exaggerating people, we are talking AFRICA hot!)
2. biking through town in the blazing sun (please consider #1 above when imagining how sweaty I get when biking) arriving at my destination covered head to toe in dirt (I'm relatively sure I have redefined "dirty" here)
3. drinking water that is the same temp as my house (please see #1 above)
4. being sick (please also consider #1 above)

But then there are the things I will miss...

Deep in contemplation...how can you not love him?
These are my little angels;)
Musicians and dancers - you couldn't pay to see it this good in the states. They are amazing!
It took 7 photo attempts (7!!!) to get them to smile. And even then I couldn't get the little girl in the middle (without a shirt) to crack. Isn't she the most adorable!!
Need I say more?