Africa Scrapbook!

It's been two years since I gave my heart to Africa. Finally I am doing the Scrapbook I planned. 5 pages done so far. Now I need to print more pictures! This is my work space. I took over Margaret's room while she was in Utah.

These are the first five pages that I have done.  Starts with the front page and ends with leaving South Africa!

I still have like 40 more pages but I love it! I love looking at the pictures, and reading my journal, and remembering the best time in my life! I miss and love Africa!

On the 4th/5th Day of Christmas

On the 4th & the 5th day...

Everyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love the holidays! (Just take a look at my blog! :) And one of the things that really makes the holidays great is all the decorations.
These are a few of the greats! I was attempting to be artistic with my photography...didn't work.

This cool nativity is my mother's nativity that her best daughter got for her while traveling Africa.

We have a table full of Santas. It's cool!

Now my absolutely favorite decoration of all Christmas is the Tree! When I was young I would sneak out of bed and go sit by the tree! It was always peaceful and comforting. It makes me super happy!

Yay! Decorations! Christmas!

Missing Africa

Soooo...I went on this way fun date last Saturday with my friend Ben. We made pizzas. We made ours in the shape of Africa. He served his mission in Sierra Leone and as you know I went to Mozambique. We both love Africa! So we made a pizza that looks like Africa!

We are pointing at our homes!!

The finished product!

Cool, right?

I miss Africa a lot. I miss it everyday. I really want to go back. I miss the people. I miss the adventure. I want to go back. Maybe I will!

Thanksgiving thoughts!

I always feel bad for Thanksgiving because Christmas is already taking over. Poor holiday! I do love thanksgiving for multiple reasons...I'm going to tell you what they are! :)

1. Turkey

2. Family

3. Pie

4. Pilgrims (religious freedom seekers!)

5. More Pie

6. A Reminder to be grateful! I'm thankful for:

What are you thankful for?

The Africa People I Love

There are just some people that you can never forget and they are usually people that you fell in love with. There were quite a few of these people in Mozambique for me. The ones I love the most were my orphans. This beautiful girl is Sarah! She was at the baby orphanage and she was my little girl! She always sat on my lap and held my hand! We played with her doll a lot too! I love her!

These two babies were also at the baby orphanage and I love them too! Sebastian and Josepha! My two wonderful little

babies. They had the cutest little laughs!

This next little girl was at the Dondo orphanage. Her name is Rosita and she would call me Tia and amiga! We hunted for flowers and played jump rope and patty cake!

Next is Emilu! We went to his orphanage in the evening and he was being pouty and grumpy so I teased him. He refused to smile for me, but when we went back he ran to me and we played tag. He remembered me!

This little boy is named Pensa and he was a handicapped child that smiled constantly!

He really wanted to make a backpack so I helped him! He was good at getting the needle through the fabric, but had difficulty getting it back through. So I helped with every stitch! He is so precious!

My orphans are so sweet and I miss them all so much!!!

(This is a video of me and Rosita)

African Adventures!!!

Here are just a few African Adventures that I had...in Africa!!! :)

Journey to South Africa!

It took 25 hours just on planes to get to Beira, Mozambique! This map shows MOZ and just south of it is South Africa. The plane ride from DC to Johannesburg was 18 hours. My feet were swollen when I walked off the plane. No fun! The world cup had just happen so all the soccer (football) decorations were still everywhere!

We stayed the night there and it was pretty comfortable! That weekend was also Nelson Mandela's birthday celebration and the country celebrated it by having everyone dedicate 67 minutes of service to him as a gift. This is me putting my pledge on the posters that were presented to him on his birthday!Pretty cool I thought!

First Night in Mozambique!

It's safe to assume that the first night I was in MOZ, I was tired. After lots and lots of traveling, I wanted to go to bed. Funny thing is that when I sat on my bed it broke, so I had to wait a few more hours for it to be fixed. Everyone ended waiting up because the drill was so loud! An adventure!

Gorongosa: Wild Life Reserve!

When you visit Africa, it's only right that you would go on a safari! I did and it was awesome!

We arrived Sunday and did an evening tour and came back when it got dark (don't want to be in the bush in an open truck when its dark...scary). We went on another tour the next morning. This time we had a park tour guide and guess what his name was?!? SIMBA! We loved it. This is him with me and Rebecca. He didn't get why we thought his name was so cool.

We got to see a lot of different animals. Let's see if you can tell what animal is in the pictures. I spy...?

This first guy (not the birds) is a dangerous animal so we didn't get to close! He is actually part of the famous Big 5 of Africa!

He is large and I decided that his name should be Walter and if you haven't guessed he is a water buffalo!

Next up is a big guy and another Big 5!

We couldn't get to close to theses guys either because of how dangerous they were! We also had to be very quite. If we startled them, they would have charged us and our truck would have lost. They were grazing and magnificent creatures.

It was exciting to see them in the wild. It was a bit scary, but thrilling at the same time!

This next guy was a bit more friendly and outgoing. He and his buddies actually slept just outside of our bungalows that we stayed in that night.

There were Pumbas all around the main camp site and throughout the park. When we got back from our evening tour it was dark at the camp and Ruthanne got out of the car. There was a Pumba right behind her! When we warned her, she screamed and about jumped into Nate's arms. It was hilarious!

The safari was amazing. And it definitely meant I was in Africa. :)

So, these were just a few of my Amazing African Adventures! More adventures will be posted daily! Tomorrow (July 14th) is the one year anniversary of when I set off to Mozambique, Africa! :) Happy day!