I've arrived!

I had to leave early this morning from the Lodge. I no longer recommend that place. It was freezing, I didn't get any breakfast and the owner was drunk when I got there. I was not able to sleep a whole lot and am thus exhausted! BUT! I am here!!! Mark and Jen picked me up at the airport and I got both my bags! No hassles at the airport with weight or anything. But my clips for my hammock were stolen. :(

So guess what I have my own room and I am under my own mosquito net right this minute. I met with Caroline who wants to start up the Madagascar base this afternoon and had dinner with her and a group this evening. My own room also has a fan! and my own BATHROOM!!! We don't have water at the moment, but having your own bathroom is a very big deal! I am very excited about it. I am beyond exhausted and honestly feel as if I am dreaming. It is just so many sights and sounds and smells to take in at once. Children are all over the place and I want to engage and talk to them and am wishing i could speak Portuguese! and frustrated that I don't. I want to get up at midnight (when I turn 32) and go the the Bethel prayer hut, but I also want to lie down in this bed and sleep. I already know I will have crazy dreams! Good ones I hope. I plan to go through a little visitor orientation with Mark tomorrow on all the do's and don'ts around here. I also plan to meet with the Long Term Staff tomorrow.

Yvette told me to write about how I feel and right now I just feel really tired. I am completely unable to process or experience any emotion other than awe, really. I am just delighted to be in the place I never believed I would ever see again. And I am just kinda on guard or maybe just keenly aware of the possibility of coming back for a long period of time and I guess I am already trying to look at it all from this point of view. Every moment I think, could I do this for two years, 10, 20

some keys on this keyboard don't work all the time, i.e. the question mark. so i guess i can no longer self reflect. I want to take advantage of having the laptop and being online, but I also literally just sat down after a very long, busy day. All I can say for now is that I am here, safe and sound and have my own bathroom. There is a roachbug the size of Texas in there right now, but I smooshed him. I drowned him until he swam under the shower curtain and then I stepped on the shower curtain. I will deal with his remains in the morning. Roaches are less scary in the morning.

I am just looking forward to settling in here, so anxious to spend time with the kids and may get to go on outreach. There are 90 amazing students here too and I want to spend time with them and hear their stories. Musician Georgian Banov just got here and I can't wait to hear his music and dance with the Mozambicans. I also am anxious to plop my face into the Indian Ocean and delve into her beauty.

So, Yvette my thoughts are just that I miss my sister, the one person I miss most all the time and feel like I carry every single place I go. I keep asking myself if I could board that plane for a long, extended stay and not cry my eyes out. I keep wondering what has called me back here so strongly and I am anxious to find out. I feel completely at home and am very excited about getting to get out there and experience, but not today. It is late and I am jetlagged and about to be another year older!

I hope Jen will let me use her computer again and I will do my best to blog often and post pictures! Sherri, oh man do I wish you were here!! I am journaling in long hand, but will post highlights here as Jen permits.

That is mostly it for now. I am here and safe and sleepy and about to be 32.

Much much much more to come.