This weekend we met some people living here from Australia, one couple (John and Tiffany)has been traveling since 2006 and aren’t returning home until 2012. They just travel to various places to work and see the country, they are headed to Egypt, then up to Italy and Greece before heading over to South America. I wish I could do that! We’ve met so many people who are taking years to see the world and I want very much to be able to have that kind of experience, and maybe I will. The only problem of course is having so much school ahead of me, I feel like I have to get going on real life. Yet I also feel like I’m so young, and have so much time! I am of course tempted to just stay here, travel, find work, but I can’t do it alone, that much is for sure. So I’ll be heading home in November. Though quite excited to see everyone, I feel as if I have so much more to experience that three months just can’t allow. The other guy we met, is a UN rep who has been living here for a year, and has another 5 to go. He’s been driving us around in his car (which is a really great change from the taxis and daladalas) and introducing us to his favorite parts of town, plus his house has a pool! Things like this are very exciting.
Both Genny and I feel a bit “done with” working at Mawenzi, we only have two weeks left there before kili but we feel like we’ve expereinced what the hospital has to offer us, and hopefully we’ve been able to help them in some form. It’s been a great experience, but time to move on a bit. How fast time is passing is a bit sad to me, I feel in no way ready to return to the “daily grind” of Western life and feel like I have major decisions to make in the near future in regards to what I want to do with my life, not just in terms of what grad school I want to attend or what career I want, but how I want to spend the time I have now. I am so greatful for this experience, I’ve learned so much, seen so much and feel changed in a way I can’t describe, but know would have been impossible had I stayed in the states. Now, I can’t imagine not doing this, and although I don’t think I’ll go with CCS again, I know this is for certain not my last time traveling and working (or volunteering) abroad.
This week is a bit low key, today is a holiday so no work, tomorrow Genny and I are meeting the Australians for dinner at an Indian resturant they reccomend and then Arusha on Wednessday. Getting more and more excited (though nervous!) for Kili!
Colliding With The Earth 
>how interesting, what living abroad does to our thoughts & feelings, hopes & expectations.i am so happy for you regarding your choice for grad school, do what feels good in your soul!i miss you so muchi think of you often, all the way in africa; watching sunsets, meeting people, being pulled out of your comfort zone, discovering new favourite places, getting ready to climb a mountain!it all sounds so picturesque, yet no doubt difficult.i read this artists biography, & he said something that stuck with me while in spain:"Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” after all, i love you & miss youcarry on!
>What a great validation for your choice to be part of this program–that it's left you wanting more-even if you're not exactly sure of what or how! It's opened up doors in your thinking that you wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't left home! Yay for you, for having the courage for all these new experiences and for being so thoughtful about them! love from San Anselmo!
>Cyndi~thank you for that quote it rings true for me. I'm not sure when this all happened, when my thinking changed, but it has for sure and I know nothing will ever be the same (in a good way!), now we need to travel together, we should just take off and go. good?love and miss you!