I have approximately 1 day 1 hour 27 minutes and 35 seconds until I leave! The excitement is starting to overflow and emotions are on overdrive. Bags are packed, gifts are opened, hugs are given, goodbyes are said, last minute donations are brought over, letters are tearfully read and prayers are being prayed. Everyone has been so helpful and encouraging these past few months and I truthfully couldn't have done it without all of you! These last few days many people have shown me a different side of them. Their caring, loving, supporting, concerned and generous side. Many of you have stepped up to the plate and have donated, given words of wisdom, given gifts for me to take, thrown me a going away party, or simply have just surprised me and shown up places to say hello and wish me a wonderful trip! I will truly miss every single one of you but I know you will all be traveling with me while I'm away. These last few weeks many of you have asked questions so I will take the time to answer some of them right now.
Where will I be staying? Well as far as I know the first night I arrive will be spent in the capital of Burundi. It is known as Bujumbura. I will stay with the wonderful Willis and Baskin families as well as the amazing Cropseys. We will stay in Bujumbura overnight and the next morning the women and I will travel to the market to stock up on food, internet airtime and phone minutes. We will then return to join the men and children and begin to pack up for our 2 and 1/2 hour ride to Kibuye. Kibuye is the village where we will stay during this trip. Upon arrival in Kibuye we will join the other families, I have been told that Monday night I will eat with the Cropseys and the Baskins and Tuesday night I will join Alyssa Pfister and the Willis family. The rest of my meals will most likely be with the Fader family as I will be staying with them in their apartment. I've been told that their girls are awaiting my arrival so I can read them some bedtime stories!
What will I be doing there? The Tuesday after I arrive I will begin a VBS with the kids. In all there will be 18 kids all under the age of 10! I will not have every single one of them as the little ones will probably be napping at the time I put on VBS. I will have about 12 of them though! But have no fear, I will have help with crowd control! Many of the moms have offered to help and I will also have the help of a family friend from Burundi named Emelyne, whom I'm very excited to meet and speak French with.
When do you leave? When do you get back? How long is your flight? I leave this Saturday from Cleveland airport at 2:40, from there I fly to Newark, NJ and meet up with the Baskin family. From there we all fly to Brussels, Belgium and meet up with the Willis family and from there fly to Bujumbura, Burundi, Africa. From the time I leave Cleveland to the time I touch down in Bujumbura is about 28 hours. I will then leave Bujumbura on the 27th with both the Willis and the Baskin family. We will all fly to Nairobi, Kenya then from there back to Brussels, Belgium. When arriving in Brussels we will say goodbye to the Willis family and the Baskins and myself will continue on our way to Washington, DC. While in Washington I will say farewell to the Baskin family and travel back home to Cleveland, Ohio. I should arrive back in Cleveland around 11:13 p.m.
How will you talk to others back home? Can you text, call, email,,etc.? My main communication will probably be through email. My phone will not work while I'm in Africa so texting and calling is out of the question from my phone. I will be buying phone minutes though since the families there will have a phone for me to use to call home maybe once a week or so. I will also be able to communicate to everyone through my blog. If you haven't done so already, please look to the left of the screen where you will see "follow by email" enter your email and hit submit. After this please check your mail for a confirmation email (VERY IMPORTANT! please watch because it will not be from me, it will be from another address so you may find it in your spam if you don't find it in your mailbox. it is very important that you look for this email!) Once you have received and found the confirmation email hit the link emailed to you in order to activate your account. By doing this you have confirmed that you would like to receive an email every time I post a new update. This is very cool! Not only will I still be able to stay in contact with you this way, but you can also be sure you won't miss a single update! Which brings us to the next set of questions.
Will you update your blog every day? Do you have a camera? Will you take a lot of pictures? Will you post those too? As some of you may or may not know, electricity and WiFi is not the greatest in Africa. So with that,as well as me being a busy girl sometimes, I may not get to update every single day. I promise to update as much as I can though! To answer the other questions, yes I have a camera and plan on taking a TON of pictures. Yes, I will post those as much as I can as well.
This pretty much covers all of the questions you guys have been asking, if you have any others please let me know through email or through my facebook page which you can
find and like here! Once again thank you all for your support and prayers! The next time I speak with all of you I will be in Burundi, Africa! I leave you all with some words I learned in Kirundi (the language they speak in Burundi.)
Genda n'amahoro! (Go be in peace!)
I have approximately 1 day 1 hour 27 minutes and 35 seconds until I leave! The excitement is starting to overflow and emotions are on overdrive. Bags are packed, gifts are opened, hugs are given, goodbyes are said, last minute donations are brought over, letters are tearfully read and prayers are being prayed. Everyone has been so helpful and encouraging these past few months and I truthfully couldn't have done it without all of you! These last few days many people have shown me a different side of them. Their caring, loving, supporting, concerned and generous side. Many of you have stepped up to the plate and have donated, given words of wisdom, given gifts for me to take, thrown me a going away party, or simply have just surprised me and shown up places to say hello and wish me a wonderful trip! I will truly miss every single one of you but I know you will all be traveling with me while I'm away. These last few weeks many of you have asked questions so I will take the time to answer some of them right now.
Where will I be staying? Well as far as I know the first night I arrive will be spent in the capital of Burundi. It is known as Bujumbura. I will stay with the wonderful Willis and Baskin families as well as the amazing Cropseys. We will stay in Bujumbura overnight and the next morning the women and I will travel to the market to stock up on food, internet airtime and phone minutes. We will then return to join the men and children and begin to pack up for our 2 and 1/2 hour ride to Kibuye. Kibuye is the village where we will stay during this trip. Upon arrival in Kibuye we will join the other families, I have been told that Monday night I will eat with the Cropseys and the Baskins and Tuesday night I will join Alyssa Pfister and the Willis family. The rest of my meals will most likely be with the Fader family as I will be staying with them in their apartment. I've been told that their girls are awaiting my arrival so I can read them some bedtime stories!
What will I be doing there? The Tuesday after I arrive I will begin a VBS with the kids. In all there will be 18 kids all under the age of 10! I will not have every single one of them as the little ones will probably be napping at the time I put on VBS. I will have about 12 of them though! But have no fear, I will have help with crowd control! Many of the moms have offered to help and I will also have the help of a family friend from Burundi named Emelyne, whom I'm very excited to meet and speak French with.
When do you leave? When do you get back? How long is your flight? I leave this Saturday from Cleveland airport at 2:40, from there I fly to Newark, NJ and meet up with the Baskin family. From there we all fly to Brussels, Belgium and meet up with the Willis family and from there fly to Bujumbura, Burundi, Africa. From the time I leave Cleveland to the time I touch down in Bujumbura is about 28 hours. I will then leave Bujumbura on the 27th with both the Willis and the Baskin family. We will all fly to Nairobi, Kenya then from there back to Brussels, Belgium. When arriving in Brussels we will say goodbye to the Willis family and the Baskins and myself will continue on our way to Washington, DC. While in Washington I will say farewell to the Baskin family and travel back home to Cleveland, Ohio. I should arrive back in Cleveland around 11:13 p.m.
How will you talk to others back home? Can you text, call, email,,etc.? My main communication will probably be through email. My phone will not work while I'm in Africa so texting and calling is out of the question from my phone. I will be buying phone minutes though since the families there will have a phone for me to use to call home maybe once a week or so. I will also be able to communicate to everyone through my blog. If you haven't done so already, please look to the left of the screen where you will see "follow by email" enter your email and hit submit. After this please check your mail for a confirmation email (VERY IMPORTANT! please watch because it will not be from me, it will be from another address so you may find it in your spam if you don't find it in your mailbox. it is very important that you look for this email!) Once you have received and found the confirmation email hit the link emailed to you in order to activate your account. By doing this you have confirmed that you would like to receive an email every time I post a new update. This is very cool! Not only will I still be able to stay in contact with you this way, but you can also be sure you won't miss a single update! Which brings us to the next set of questions.
Will you update your blog every day? Do you have a camera? Will you take a lot of pictures? Will you post those too? As some of you may or may not know, electricity and WiFi is not the greatest in Africa. So with that,as well as me being a busy girl sometimes, I may not get to update every single day. I promise to update as much as I can though! To answer the other questions, yes I have a camera and plan on taking a TON of pictures. Yes, I will post those as much as I can as well.
This pretty much covers all of the questions you guys have been asking, if you have any others please let me know through email or through my facebook page which you can find and like here! Once again thank you all for your support and prayers! The next time I speak with all of you I will be in Burundi, Africa! I leave you all with some words I learned in Kirundi (the language they speak in Burundi.) Genda n'amahoro! (Go be in peace!)
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