I feel like I've been here for so long but it's gone by so fast!!  It's been over three weeks now since I left the USA, and I love it here.  It's such a crazy adventure!  The family I'm living with is such an awesome family, and I feel right at home.  The girls are like little sisters already and we've shared many a giggle.  Alicia, the mom, is a wonderful woman who is also a wonderful mom and Calvin, the dad, is a wonderful example of a God-fearing father.  The girls are all wonderful and funny and so eager to please and love.  It's so cool being here with them.

As for the rest of Africa... My whole life I've grown up seeing ads about the starving children in Africa, and commercials about AIDs.  I've participated in the 30-Hour Famine and experienced a little of the hunger that effects so many.  But it was never really...real.  I knew it was happening, but I didn't see how it effected me. It was sad, but I didn't know what I could do to help.

Everywhere you go here, you see it.  You see the little kids with only a shirt or the girls walking miles to get water.  It's very, very real now.  Just like in the pictures the youth group painted last 30-Hour Famine, a starving child can sit right next to a huge Coca-Cola machine, but still starve.  It's heartbreaking; which is why I'm so excited to be a part of making a change.

The Tanzanian culture is VERY different from our own.  Everything is loud and over-the-top.  It's hard to get used to!  Also, there's no such thing as personal space, and staring isn't rude!  It is so weird to just be stared at everywhere I go.  But I'll have to get used to it!  The little kids smile and wave at us all the time, so I wave back.  They're adorable.

Anyway.  School started today!  I'm a teacher now. :)  I'm enjoying the girls very much, and their passion for learning is inspiring me, too.

I will keep updating as more exciting things happen!  I love and miss you all!

Kelsey