Everyone knows I have a heart for Africa.It's just engranded on my DNA and as much as the thoguht of traveling 3000 miles away terrifies me (what if i get lost? what if i can't find a bathroom? what if i get homesick?), I am beyond excited. This is a one in a lifetime oppurnity.

Thoreau writes: "Do not simply be good, be good for something." I want to be good for something other than go to college, get a education and teach a bunch of sophmores about the Revolution. I want to get life expierences that go beyond the classroom and can give me adventures that I can tell my kids about.

Alot of people ask me "Why Africa?" I say, "why not Africa?" I have been actively involved in my hometown, loved every minute of it, but I always wondered is there something more? Am i missing out of an entire demigraphic just because I live here in Massachuseettes? I am. People of an entirely different culture, with a totally different language and entirely different ways of doing. My highest expectation for this trip is to learn something. I want to be stretched out of my comfort zone, grow as a person and bring home a new little piece of me.

Any aid (be it pray or money or a encouraging word) is grately valued and apprecatied.

All my love,

Alysha <3