Africa Update....Life update...Whew!

The best is yet to come! Until I get on the plane early Sunday morning of May 15, life will be full of stress, excitement, worry and franticness! (yep, I just made that word up!)

Since my D.C. trip, I've been doing a lot more research of what I'll need to pack that I normally wouldn't think to take and also visiting with people who are knowledgeable about studying abroad and/or Africa! Nothing better than getting first hand information! I met up with my church's youth director, Scott Meier, and I explained how a little worried I was last week. It seemed as though I was so unsure and scared about the unknown. My group whom I'm traveling with haven't even met up yet! I would say he advised for me to take the initiative to get everyone together at my house ...or somewhere to meet! (Scott will say he demanded me, but I try to keep him looking like he's a nice guy :) So, there I did! Tomorrow, Thursday, most of the ladies will be coming to my house to have pizza, good fellowship AND meet a special guest! Another demand from Scott was for me to invite JJ Waggoner to discuss her Ghana trip experiences! I'm not sure how JJ was skipped in my thought process to go to before now, but I'm so glad she will be joining us!

 Mosquito Net from Google Images

JJ and her husband, Tony, adopted a precious little girl, Jennifer, from Ghana about two years ago. (Might have been a little longer than that?) They met Jennifer while their church was delivering mosquito nets. It is a huge blessing that they have Jennifer and continue to deliver mosquito nets in Africa. 

Just when I thought things were going pretty smoothly as far as completing forms and such, I didn't know applying for a visa was so complicated! Silly me, I thought I just needed to fill out a form, send a check and passport and be good to go! Oh, but only in my world would it ever be that simple. So, on with the process I go! Last Saturday and Sunday were spent running errands, trying to figure out exactly what kind of money I was able to send for the visa, getting the correct track-able envelope and passport photos taken. Finally, tomorrow, the visa application for Ghana will be on it's way to Washington D.C. and I will hopefully receive it by the 19th or 20th. This will amount to perfect timing to send my application for Togo off and have with enough spare time before my departure.

I received an email from my professor for Africa, Dr. Bass, telling us what our attire should be for our stay. No short short, which I can completely understand. Everything must be at knee length or longer. We aren't going to there to dress-to-impress by no means, but it was time for a shopping trip to find bermuda shorts and capris! So far, I've had success and I can start marking items off the list!

On to non-Africa things...

On May 6, I will have completed my first semester of my masters program. Whew! I'd have to say that this semester has been the easiest semester that I've had of my college career :) I hope I can continue to say this until my masters is complete, but I'm not holding my breath since I will have to take a math class at some point.

Well, I guess there's not much else going on besides Africa stuff, school and work! I'm sure I'll blog again soon about tomorrow's event, but that's all I'll write for today. 

Love.