Wait, we leave tomorrow?

WOHOOOOO I finally get to get on a plane and leave the country - TOMORROW!

While I have been learning a LOT about contentment over the past several weeks, I (and my entire team) am SO ready to get moving to West Africa and get on the ground in our villages. While I still don't know what village I will be working in, I know we will be in the "Eastern region" which is the area to the east and south of the giant lake Volta (largest man-made reservoir in the world). We will arrive on Sunday night after a flight to Amsterdam (and hopefully some "outside" time during our 7 hour layover there), then we have 2 days in the capital city (Accra) before moving to our region for cross-cultural training.

What has happened in the last week? Well... a lot. But it has been great. After a week of work and learning at the ECHO farm in Fort Myers, we had a nice day off on Saturday - so, being in Florida and all, we of course went to the beach.

Then we drove to Gainesville on Sunday - did you know I lived in Gainesville for 8.5 years? My mother worked at the University of Florida for those years between being born and (currently) residing in State College, PA. So to majority of my childhood occurred in that humid college town! It was weird being back under these circumstances, but nonetheless refreshing to visit my favorite childhood restaurant (Sonny's BBQ) and even SEE MY CHILDHOOD HOME (which is for sale if anyone is interested)!

The best BBQ restaurant ever. 

On Monday, we presented our agricultural lesson plans to some AEE faculty and PhD students at UF - in the same building my mom used to work in! Talk about deja-vu... it was a great experience and a wonderful opportunity to meet with (or re-unite with) the outstanding faculty at UF. We also got great teaching tips to take with us to Ghana!

My mom's old building - where we spent Monday morning

Lesson practice!

It was fun to have some of the experts serve as students for activities... 

Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon we were occupied with preparations for and execution of a "leadership day" at the Boys and Girls Club. Again, I experienced some flashbacks, as I had spent some of my summers at this exact club (not very fond memories, mind you) in NW Gainesville. However, we got some good "facilitation" experience with the group of about 30 kids, ages 10-14. While they went a little crazy and were hard to handle and several of us left very frustrated, I was pleased to get the chance to interact with them and love on them, as several of those youths come from low SES or struggling backgrounds. Also, working as a counselor for the YMCA day camp for 4 years probably left me with a greater patience level for these kids...

Tuesday night was a lovely evening with some great people - Lisa Heinert is a member of the AgriCorps board, and her husband, Seth, is a UF AEE PhD student. Their adorable 4-month old son, David, has been of great stress relief and comfort to us (they were present at the training in East Texas a few weeks ago), so I am glad I got to spend some time with all of them at dinner on Tuesday.

David is not angry - he just has the funniest facial expressions of any baby I have ever seen... he seems so mature in how he looks at the world! 

Wednesday morning we had some medical and safety training from a former Peace Corps medical officer (who happened to work in Ghana) before hitting the road! After 8 hours of driving, we arrived in our slightly planned mid-point overnight spot - New Orleans. It was a first time visit for 6 of us, so we wanted to be sure to see the city. It was quite an interesting night - there are very interesting folk in New Orleans, and Bourbon street is a fun place! Nonetheless, we got to unwind a bit after some crazy transitions. Then, on the road again to arrive in Dallas last night!

Melissa and Dustin were in as much need of a night off as I was! Note: Courtney in the background :) 

Twilight view of Bourbon Street, New Orleans!

While I love this group of people dearly, I needed some "away" time after 21 straight days in this group - and thankfully I get to see a friend tonight. She is living and working in Fort Worth and she is going to take me touring around Dallas tonight!

I am definitely ready to get on that plane tomorrow... but I am so thankful for the last several weeks of crazy travel, learning, and fun! It almost doesn't feel like we are leaving tomorrow - I have been so content just 'being' that it hasn't become a reality in my mind that we will be in a village, teaching, within the next few weeks... This year of service is not at all what I've expected it to be so far, but it has nonetheless been a great time for personal growth and new experiences - even if we still are in the U.S.

Let's just say that the inaugural group of AgriCorps will most likely never, ever be duplicated in their experiences...

With love from Dallas!!