I know it's been a long time since I've written on this thing and it's finally boredom that has caused me to update it. Your welcome Nana.
It's hard to believe that I left Malawi four months ago. Like most life-changing events in our lives, it feels like it all just happened yesterday and yet it seems like forever ago. I miss it, a lot, more than I can express sometimes. I tend to romanticize my experience by thinking of my wonderful friends and family there and all the good times that I had. But when I think honestly on those two years I know that I encountered many challenges and frustrations and I was often homesick or just plain sick from some weird parasite or infection. But all of it together turned out to be the best two years of my life to date. I feel so blessed and humbled to have had the opportunity to do something I probably would have thought impossible before I went. I really don't know how I made it through in one piece, but I did and for that I know I have no one to thank but the Lord for His provision
A short little update on my past projects...I talk regularly with Aaron, my friend who runs the Kamera Health Clinic. The clinic is running very well and now the community wants to make the most of the nice building so they are going to use it for a community daycare and for the local youth club. The chiefs at Kamera were not satisfied with only having the clinic and are now building a house for Aaron so that he can live in the village rent-free. A very kind donor chipped in money to help pay for a builder and the community is fundraising the rest of the costs. The other projects, like the pigs at the HIV/AIDS Support Group and all of the medicinal gardens we built are also going well. But in the end only time will tell if the projects will be sustained or not...
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed my time post-Malawi at home with my family. I spent my summer watching my beautiful niece Adelaide, beekeeping and bottling honey with my dad, spending time with my other awesome niece and nephew, and indulging in everything I missed out on for the last two years.
My summer was great, but now I've moved on to the next phase in my "journey" which is grad school. I moved out to Colorado last week and I'll be starting at the University of Denver next month. I'll be studying International Development with the aim to go back to Africa or work with a nonprofit here that operates within the Sub Saharan. But who really knows, my future is wide open and I like it that way.
I just got a job working in DU's athletic department and have some other income generating ventures up my sleeve. On top of that I've been riding my bike everywhere, playing pickup volleyball, polishing up my snowboard, and enjoying the scenery of Colorado. It's a fun time right now and I'm trying to live as stress-free as possible until school starts.
Well, that's been my life the last four months. I'm not sure how much I'll update this blog while I'm in school as I'd love to think I'll have a lot of free time but sadly I don't think that will be true. But I'm confident to say that this isn't the end of my blogging days and I hope to be writing about other adventures sometime in the future. Thanks to all for your continued support and readership!
I leave you with a picture of my recent trip to Castlewood Canyon State Park. Colorado is great!
It's hard to believe that I left Malawi four months ago. Like most life-changing events in our lives, it feels like it all just happened yesterday and yet it seems like forever ago. I miss it, a lot, more than I can express sometimes. I tend to romanticize my experience by thinking of my wonderful friends and family there and all the good times that I had. But when I think honestly on those two years I know that I encountered many challenges and frustrations and I was often homesick or just plain sick from some weird parasite or infection. But all of it together turned out to be the best two years of my life to date. I feel so blessed and humbled to have had the opportunity to do something I probably would have thought impossible before I went. I really don't know how I made it through in one piece, but I did and for that I know I have no one to thank but the Lord for His provision
A short little update on my past projects...I talk regularly with Aaron, my friend who runs the Kamera Health Clinic. The clinic is running very well and now the community wants to make the most of the nice building so they are going to use it for a community daycare and for the local youth club. The chiefs at Kamera were not satisfied with only having the clinic and are now building a house for Aaron so that he can live in the village rent-free. A very kind donor chipped in money to help pay for a builder and the community is fundraising the rest of the costs. The other projects, like the pigs at the HIV/AIDS Support Group and all of the medicinal gardens we built are also going well. But in the end only time will tell if the projects will be sustained or not...
As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed my time post-Malawi at home with my family. I spent my summer watching my beautiful niece Adelaide, beekeeping and bottling honey with my dad, spending time with my other awesome niece and nephew, and indulging in everything I missed out on for the last two years.
My summer was great, but now I've moved on to the next phase in my "journey" which is grad school. I moved out to Colorado last week and I'll be starting at the University of Denver next month. I'll be studying International Development with the aim to go back to Africa or work with a nonprofit here that operates within the Sub Saharan. But who really knows, my future is wide open and I like it that way.
I just got a job working in DU's athletic department and have some other income generating ventures up my sleeve. On top of that I've been riding my bike everywhere, playing pickup volleyball, polishing up my snowboard, and enjoying the scenery of Colorado. It's a fun time right now and I'm trying to live as stress-free as possible until school starts.
Well, that's been my life the last four months. I'm not sure how much I'll update this blog while I'm in school as I'd love to think I'll have a lot of free time but sadly I don't think that will be true. But I'm confident to say that this isn't the end of my blogging days and I hope to be writing about other adventures sometime in the future. Thanks to all for your continued support and readership!
I leave you with a picture of my recent trip to Castlewood Canyon State Park. Colorado is great!
