Met With Mercy, Met With Grace

i'm unbelievably blessed by this girl



"There are neighbors or others who continually say evil things about us, who abuse us, who openly wrong us, and torment and harass us whenever they can. At the mere sight of them, the blood rushed to our heads, a terrible threatening anger. It is the enemy who provokes such a thing in us. But now we must be on guard. Now we must remember quickly: I was met with mercy, not by people, no, but by God, and Jesus Christ died for our enemy—and all at once everything is different. Now we hear: repay no one evil for evil. Do not lift up your hand to strike, do not open your mouth in anger, but be still. For what can those who do you evil do to harm you? It is not you whom it harms, but it does harm to them. No Christian is harmed by suffering injustice. But perpetuating injustice does harm. Indeed, the evil one wants to accomplish only one thing with you; namely, that you also become evil. But were that to happen, the evil one would have won. Therefore, repay no one evil for evil. For in doing so, you harm not the evil one, but yourself. "

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

before you start to worry, let me just say that i haven't been tormented or abused by anyone while here.
but this quote can exeplify a struggle that i've been dealing with for about a month now. i' ve have been very frustrated from day one with the attitudes and behaviours of lots of kids in our group. many of them have no interest in learning hte language, the culture, etc. and act like complete elementary schoolers when we are out in public. needless to say, that gets old quick and i was having lots of trouble having patience for them and loving them. so one night, i was talking with maggie about this, who ps, is the most amazing roomate, and she was just like, 'yeah, they are obnoxious and rude and unlovable, but that's how we were before Christ.' gosh, she just really blew it home for me and even more, that night i went home and was reading my dietrich bonhoeffer book and the reading for that night was the above one. pretty sweet how that works, huh?

so i've been given so much grace, not only from JC, but also let me just tell you how much i've been given from maggie. these past few weeks have been very difficult for me, i've had trouble emotionally and mentally, and i can't say that i've been nice every day. bad moods and grumpyness have come a lot quicker than usual and i have honestly treated her like crap at times. but the other day i got back from class after an especially bad past day, and there was a letter on my bed from maggie. in it she proceeded to tell me how great she thinks i am, how thankful she is to be living with me and how excited she is to see where my life goes in the future. i mean, this is the last thing i ever deserved to get. i deserved to get a letter telling me how much i stink and how hurtful i have been, not the complete opposiste. so here, i have been met with grace and mercy once again.

so that's it for now, just a few thoughts to tell you how great my roommate is is how thankful that i am for GRACE!!!

livin' it up, spain style.

So I started off this past week with a new appreciation for the city I’m living in. Barcelona was great, but I don’t think I could pull off living there. Salamanca is a pretty good size for me. Also, I had been pretty down since I got here just about the general feel of the city, like the fact that no one smiles, no one laughs, no one seems to be happy in the street. However, Wednesday in between classes I was walking around campus and ran into this guy with a red shirt and a painted face. He came up to me and told me to give him a smile and then handed me a flyer. The flyer talked about smiling and how it can change things and how it doesn’t cost anything or take any effort to do, but that it can change someone’s day for the better. It’s little things like that that really lift my spirit- that a group of students see a need and want to change things, even if it’s just to try to get people to smile on their campus. So that’s another thing about Salamanca that I’m happy with. Also I saw this stencil on a wall near campus. It says ‘Lo Esencial Es Invisible a Los Ojos;- basically saying, that which is essential, or what makes you who you are, is not what’s on the outside, but what is on the inside.

i love stenciling


Also, the other day I saw this advertisement for what I assume is some kind of Intl Org working for literacy for people who can’t read. It says, ‘You know how to read, they don’t. We can change it.”

manos unidas

I LOVE stuff like that around the city!

I only had three days of classes this week. It’s going well, I’m very happy with my art and phonetics class. Cinema’s work is starting to pile on, but I’m really happy about that. As for Civ, it’s still pretty bad, but I can make the best of it. By the way, here’s a picture of what I see when I look out my classroom windows, if you were wondering… Pretty sweet, huh?

view #1

view #2

I got to take a lot of walks this week and I had a lot of time to just look around the city. I have a few hour breaks between classes, so that makes for a good time getting lost for 25 min and then trying to find my way back.

cathedral right outside our classes.

Thursday in between classes I ventured into a little shop on a side road and made quite possibly my best purchase since I arrived. I got a new Salamanca sweatshirt for less than 3 euro. The 3 euro could have something to do with the fact that the sweatshirt has been in the store since 1987. Can you tell by the colors?? Now I have something to wear to all the 80’s parties when I get back.

i'm clearly going to be the coolest kid at school

So Thursday night we went to En Vivo. The first time was a little overwhelming, but this week I was a little more prepared and I knew a few more people, so it was a lot more fun. There are so many people from all over and everyone is so welcoming and friendly. I met up with Hannah there, who’s becoming a good buddy of mine and met a few friends of her. Our friend Mike, who’s in our program, came with us, so that was cool. He doesn’t really fit in with all the guys in our program, aka- he’s not an obnoxious, rude drunk. So that’s fun. We went out with Magari and Jessica after En Vivo just for a little bit, but had to get home early cause of class the next day.

Friday we had class and then by 1 we were done. Laura and I walked around Calle Toro, the shopping street in Salamanca, looking for shoes. The new thing here this season is poka-dots, and we had seen some pretty cute flats in a few shops and wanted to check them out. But alas, they were too expensive and not sturdy enough for walking around Salamanca, so we said no. Next was lunch, then nap time, then Laura came back over and we sat inside and chatted it up. It was rainy and cold all day so we tried not to go outside.

Friday night we met up with Magari and Jessica to go out. It was Magari’s last night in Salamanca, so we all wanted to spend the last night together. She left on Saturday morning to go back to Switzerland for a week and then she’s headed to Costa Rica to work in an orphanage for 4 months. Gosh, can I join??

jessica and magari

mags and me before a big night out

So all of us girls and Mike went from place to place enjoying all that Salamanca’s night life has to offer. We, of course, ended our night at Camelot, the best place for dancing. We found Baker and John Michael, two guys from our program, on the street and brought them in with us. They boys sure are funny to watch.

mike and stacy breaking it down

We saw our friend Fabio, who we met at En Vivo, at Camelot too and found out he works there, which is great for us, because that means free whatever we want-which for me just means bottled water. So we all got home way too late on Friday night and Maggie and I proceeded to sleep in later than I care to tell you on Saturday morning.

So really, Saturday entailed nothing much. We found a cute little internet café in the afternoon that is run by an even cuter Taiwanese woman named Yori. So Maggie and I were there for just a little bit. Then was dinner, in which we were joined by a girl who lived with Rosa last semester. Lindsay is from N. Carolina and goes to Wake Forrest, so we all hung out for a bit. Then we met up with Hannah and her totally British friend Shaun and we went out to this quiet little bar/cafe. Walking there, I was talking with Hannah the whole time, and I just couldn’t’ stand the sound of my own voice and accent as I talked with her. I could just listen to her smooth, soothing British voice forever. We were all really tired and had planned to just go home after that, but of course, we ended up at Camelot, yet again and danced for a while.

Sunday morning came quite early, as I didn’t get nearly enough sleep the night before, but it was started with probably the best thing I could ever have wished for. Alyssa, this American I met at our church, had invited Hannah and me over for the morning for breakfast and to talk and pray together. It was so wonderful. They are both fabulous young women and it was such a blessed thing for me to be able to share my heart with people who had just met me, but still love me to death.

alyssa and hannah

I am so thankful for this; we’re planning on doing it each week. And not only did I have great fellowship, but Alyssa is a total health nut, so I got to eat strawberries and oaty cereal with soy milk for breakfast! It was like Christmas! And Alyssa has the most amazing view of the city from her terrace. It’s just red roofs for miles and miles! (well sort of)

view from alyssa's apt.

So after that amazing start to the day, I went home and ate lunch with the fam, then Laura came over and we went running in the park. It was sunny and nearly warm, perfect for running in a park. So after that I went to church with the girls, went and talked with Hannah, Maggie and Alyssa a little more and then went home for dinner, which was……PIZZA! So really, it was a great day. Great fellowship, great weather, and great food.

on the road again.

So the rest of our classes started this past week. Looks like it’s going to be a great ride! I’m taking Spanish Literature and Cinema which I think is going to be a lot of work, but an amazing class. My professor Javier Pardo García is really great, very intelligent and he knows mogollons (new vocab word!) about Spanish culture and lit and cinema. Then there’s Phonetics with Prof Natividad Hernández Muñoz, or Nati as we’re supposed to call her. I think this is going to be my most valuable class because it’s going to improve my Spanish more than any conversation could. We’re learning how to pronounce things and how to use the parts of your mouth to form sounds. It’s so neat to learn about stuff like that, like learning that the way we speak is directly related to how our mouths move and whole languages are based on that. Next is Spanish Art with Laura Muñoz Pérez which will be great because we’re going to go to lots of art museums. Right now we’re studying La Alhambra, which we’re visiting in April. Lastly is Spanish Civilization with Maria Grande Jiménez. This class has been a bit dry this week, but I’m hoping it will get better. I actually did a fair amount of work this week, I’m glad to finally get into the swing of working again. Intensivo had some work, but it was more like non-mandatory work to help yourself. Now it’s real and I’m sure glad about that.

As for non-class stuff, a lot happened this week. I took a long walk during a break from classes to the edge of the city and found a beautiful view of the outside of the city and come of the countryside. It was a gorgeous day and the sky and the clouds were so vibrant.

outskirts of salamanca

Going on walks and finding new places has got to be one of the best things about being here.

salamanca house

Wednesday night Stacy, Dre and I went to this Bible study group type thing at Laura’s house (the girl from the DR.) We’re starting to study Acts, and this is a hard core study! We’ve got a whole packet of homework and all! But I’m going to learn a lot and it’s going to be great to learn all this in Spanish! Thursday night we went to En Vivo, a ministry started by Americans for Spanish students and exchange students at the University. Some Americans came over about three years ago and just hung out in bars and started to form relationships. After a year or so, they bought an apartment near the heart of the city and turned it into a hang out place in which they have various activities during the week. There are pinchos (tapas) at 9:30 and then around 10:30 they have some music and a short talk. It was so sweet to meet them and all the 40-50 people that come each week. I met a girl from Bolivia, a girl from Germany, a guy from Italy and a guy from Spain and got to see Hannah, Jessica and Irena. It’s another thing that’s really going to improve my Spanish, as all the songs and talking are in Spanish. It’s amazing finding all these things that really open all these new doors for my time here!

So Friday we had two hours of Cinema and Lit. We went home, ate lunch and then took naps, (of course!) Then Laura came over because Maggie and I were going for a run and she wanted to join. So 4:30 came around, when we had planned to go, and it looked a bit dark outside and we could tell it was drizzling. But when has a little rain ever stopped us?? So we took off anyway toward the park and about halfway there, we basically ran into the most violent thunder and lightening storm we’ve seen yet. And we saw the most amazing and beautiful lightening we’ve ever seen, in our lives! Dangerous, maybe, but we continued on, laughing about all the Spaniards rushing indoors and staring at us as we passed by. So we got to the park and ran for a while and when our faces and legs couldn’t stand the cold rain anymore, we went back home. All our appendages were beet red with cold when we got back to the house and Rosa must have thought we were lunatics.

ludicrously wet and dirty tennis shoes.


We were freezing, but it sure was fun.

Friday night, Maggie and I went out with the other students from JMU. We started at Desperado, the oh so touristy student bar, not quite to my liking, but we wanted to hang out with the other students, so we tagged along. We stayed with them until the decision was made to go to an all you can drink bar for 5 euro. So clearly, considering my drinking and spending habits, Maggie and I said ‘Adios!’ and headed home, making record time to bed on a Friday. Saturday morning we started our 10 hour journey by bus to Barcelona. It was awesome to be able to drive through Spain and see the countryside. Boy is Spain beautiful. It’s a breathtaking combination of burnt colors-reds, oranges, browns and greens. Really, it almost looks dead at times, almost romantic, mysterious, mystical--whatever you’d say.

beautiful colors

Around 4pm or so, we approached from afar what seemed to be wind turbines. As we got closer, we realized that there were basically huge fields of wind turbines. And these things were HUGE.

pretty sweet sight

It’s a rare, but very special thing to see something that you are just in awe of.

So after just a few stops, a whole lot of driving and one viewing of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in Spanish, we made it to Barcelona at about 8 pm or so. The trip I had been dreading ever since I knew it existed wasn’t so bad after all.

from the far west blue to the far east green
that's pretty far

So we got into the hotel, ate dinner and then a bunch of us met up to go out. Our hotel was like the farthest north that you can even see on the map, so walking to the city definitely wasn’t going to happen, so we all took the metro in to the major part of the city, the old city, with La Rambla, the main street Barcelona is known for. We met up with a friend of one of the girls in the program and we all went to his amazing apartment for a while. There were students from all over the world. Janet, the girl in our program, is a diplomat’s kid and her friend was too, so there were tons of internationals at the house. I got to talk with some Spaniards, a German, and an Irish girl. So cool.

Sunday morning we all got up, went to the Picasso museum in the middle of Barcelona. It was just astounding. I mean we all know Pablo’s a great artist, but it’s not until you go to the museum with more than 25 rooms all filled with beautiful works of art that it really hits. It was wonderful just walking though and seeing work after work, all with a story behind it.

inside the picasso museum

So after that we went to Montjuit, another place I’d been before to take a view of the city from a high peak. It was a beautiful clear day starting out and fortunately we got in some pictures before the clouds began to gather and fill up the sky. By the way, Barcelona is ENORMOUS. If you didn’t know.

barcelona from montjuic

After that we had some free time for lunch and so Laura and I want to central city and hit up a grocery store for fresh veggies and peanuts. My friend who’s studying in Florence flew in for the weekend so we met up with him and walked around the city.

Then it was Parc Guell and the home of Antonio Gaudi, another placed I’d been before, but it’s so cool, going a second time is no problem for me.

parc guell


tiling on the ceiling


parc guell

After that Dan and I went into the city and went to this music hall to a concert. That was pretty sweet, going to a show in a big city. We’ve gone to stuff in Salamanca, but this was a different ballgame and we took the Metro in, so that’s always fun.

Monday morning we started off with La Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi-esk church in central Barcelona. This church has been under construction for at least 100 years and is so unbelievable. It’s not actually the total plan of Antonio Gaudi, as he’s been dead for a while now and didn’t really plan it out in the first place, but it’s in a style like his.

la sagrada familia

The inside is under construction as well, but there are in place already some very beautiful stain glass windows, as well as intricate decorations.

inside cathedral


inside cathedral X2


stained glass window


stained glass window X2

We were able to go up to the top of the church and look out on to the city--that was a quite amazing view.

design at the top

Possibly my favorite part of the church is the front doors, which are made of wood, and have hundreds of words carved into them. They are so beautiful.

cathedral door


So late morning we headed to, La Pedrera, the home of Pere Milá, a friend of Gaudi’s. He designed the home they lived in and it was quite amazing. His work is characterized by combining architecture and nature. In part of the house, there is a huge open roof and there area plants everywhere.

inside casa mila


We got to go to the terrace on the top of the apartment building and see a view of the city.

from casa mila


After that we went to central city and had free time for the rest of the day. It was warm and sunny so the five of us headed to the beach. It was so nice, we just sat out on the sand and ate lunch and watched people. There were tons of surfers in the water.

line of surfers


It was freezing though, I mean, it is February. After an hour or so, all of a sudden, the sun disappeared and it got so cold. So we all bundled up and just withstood the cold,

barcelona playa

In the evening, Laura and I went to this Indian restaurant we had seen a few days before for dinner. It was great and cheap and really satisfied our lengthy longing for spicy food.

indian tandoori restaurant spells delicious

After that, we just walked around the city for a little more and then took the metro home.

It was a great trip to Barcelona, just long enough to see some neat things and have some fun, but short enough to be back in Salamanca when I was ready. I am so thankful that I’m studying in Salamanca; it’s the perfect size in my opinion. And I’m definitely happy to be back in a smaller place. Also, English is much more available in Barcelona, and it would be easy to get by without really learning the language. So another plus for Salamanca.

Still missing Uganda, especially this weekend in the huge city. I think I’m definitely a small town kind of girl and being in Barcelona really made it clear to me. So I've been struggling with that, but a huge comfort to me has been Laura. She has gone to Guatemala the past few summers and shares a lot of the same feelings and problems with me. And she's always excited to hear me talk about Uganda! Monday night we sat on my bed for a while and just looked at pics of Bundi and I got to tell her all about it! That was really sweet!

second time around.

i remembered this time! here it is in its entirety.

"Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute, we must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap, God does not fill it, but on the contrary, God keeps it empty, and so helps us keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain. The dearer and richer our memories, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy. The beauties of the past are borne, but not as a thorn in the flesh, but as a precious gift in themselves. We must take care not to wallow in our memories or to hand ourselves over to them, just as we do not gaze all the time at a valuable present, but only at special times, and a part from these keep it simply as a hidden treasure that is ours for certain. In this way, the past gives us lasting joy and strength."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer- Letters and Papers from Prison

absent love

"Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute...It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; he does not fill it, but on the contrary, he keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer



for christmas, my wonderful father gave me a book of great passages by dietrich bonhoeffer to read each day. this is the one i read last night. there's much more this quote by this amazing man, i wrote it all down and had meant to put it all up here, but of course i would forget the paper at home, so for now, this is all i've got. i'll post the rest of it later.

but anyway, i miss you all. i love you all.

if you read all of this, you are a true friend...

The Plaza at night. Impressed?

home sweet home

Pretty good week. It’s been pretty nice weather, some rain, but that’s usually in the morning and then by the end of the day it’s sunny. It’s nice.

I was exhausted starting out the week after the excursion this past weekend, so that’s always difficult, but my madre started giving us coffee in the morning instead of hot chocolate, so that definitely helped. I just had Intensivo this week, though there was a little more work because of our project and exam at the end of the week. Though we had pretty much finished out project on Monday, we still had a lot of editing and practicing to do, so that took up time. But it pretty much went off well.

This past Wednesday, the sister of the princess of Spain died in her home. Doña Letizia is married to the Prince of Spain, Felipe, and her sister was Erika Ortiz. It’s a real a tragedy, completely unexpected and she had a 6 year old daughter. Though a terrible thing to happen, it has been interesting seeing a nation react to it. It’s a bit of a historical event and all the news has been covering it, and I feel like I’ve learned some about the culture through it.

Erika Ortiz

On Thursday Laura and I got our plane tickets and made our hostel reservation for Dublin in April. I was going to go to Greece, but it was just too expensive. And I think it’s about time for me to get to Ireland, since my parents probably will be moving there sometime in the future. ; ) So we’re excited about that.

Friday was our exam day. I sure studied a lot; probably more than I would have needed to for the test, but really, every day is a test here so ‘studying more than you need to’ doesn’t really exist. Even if there was stuff that wasn’t on the test, more likely than not I will need to know it anyway, so I’ve got no regrets about the appalling amounts of studying that were done. I really think that my Madre and sister think that I’m really strange because whenever I am looking over notes or something, she asks me if I’m studying and then makes the face that says, ‘Studying again?!! Goodness Child!” I guess their past students weren’t as lame as I am.

So all Friday afternoon was free, we ate lunch, I took a short nap, and
then went out to explore around the south part of the city. There were a lot of small alleys and side roads to explore on and I found a few really good views of the center of the city.

one of the many AMAZING views of the cathedral

I hit jackpot when I stumbled upon what must have been THE graffiti wall in Salamanca because there was so much of it, and good stuff too.

y mas!


y mas!

So after adventuring around, I met up with Laura and we walked to the river that surrounds the outskirts of the city and walked around Salamanca for a while.

Walking back in on one of the bridges, we had the most amazing view of the cathedral. It was getting a little dark, though, so the pictures didn’t turn out as well as I would have wanted.

Our goal is to make it around the entire city soon, to see the whole thing.

So we ate dinner around 9 and then hung out with Rosa for a while. After we eat our meals, Rosa always brings out some kind of chocolate and tries to get us to eat it. For this first week, this wasn’t so bad, but now it’s like we’re on chocolate overload, so we are always trying to get out of eating it. However, she wouldn’t take no for an answer that night and she actually tried to force feed it to us. No really, Maggie and I just kept laughing and saying no, so Rosa got up and attempted to stuff a piece of chocolate in each of our mouths. We got away with only eating a half of a piece each.

Around 11 we got the troops rallied and went to the Plaza to meet a few other people to go out with. Some of Maggie’s friends were in from Switzerland, so we met up with them and went out to a few places, ending up at Camelot, our favorite discotheque/bar here.

maggie and beth

Nightlife here in Spain is just a little different to what I’m used to. Usually, if I go out around 11, that’s pretty late, but here people don’t usually go out to bars until 12 and then things really get started at the clubs at around 3 or so. So here I am, feeling like a grandma, at 2 or so being so exhausted and wanting to go sleep. But I mustered the energy to dance to at least one more techno remix of some really crappy American song. Now I understand why Saturdays are lazy days for everyone, as I couldn’t get myself out of bed before 10:30, quite late compared to our normal time to rise.

So really, Maggie and I just sat around the house all morning and afternoon and wrote and read and watched Spanish dubbed versions of already cheesy American TV shows and movies.

i can't even escape hilary duff by going to spain.

Around 4 Laura came over and the three of us just layed on my bed and talked. We rallied ourselves around 5 to go out in search of those shoes that we all wanted. You know, the leopard/zebra print flats that you’ve been dreaming about. But none of the stores with the good prices were open and we definitely weren’t about to shell out 20-30 euro, so we just went to the Plaza and sat and watched people. Soon we were approached by a cute old Spanish man who started to talk to us and tell us about the book he’s writing about Salamanca. Apparently it’s going to be translated in to every language. So after hearing about that for about 30 minutes, we finally got away and headed home because it was so cold. We ate dinner and Laura came over and then Dre and Stacy came over and we all walked to the Plaza around 11:45 to meet with some girls that Dre and Stacy had met that day at a lunch at the church. So we met with Jessica, who’s from Taiwan, Magari, from Switzerland and Irina, from Ukraine. They took us to their favorite bar and then after that we headed to Camelot again and danced for a while. It was so great to be with some new people. They are amazing, they all speak at least three languages and are all doing different things. I love having new friends!

So then came Sunday….a day that will remain infamous in my mind forever. It started by waking up super late, as was inevitable from the night before, only to find that Rosa had made chocolate and churros for breakfast. And if you have ever been to Spain, you know what this means. Basically we had a cup of outrageously thick and rich chocolate to dip fried dough sticks into.

So Maggie and I, side by side, started in on the churros, almost fearing for our lives with every bite.

the mission placed before us...


the utter failure...


the painful result

It was delicious, but I can’t say that I ever want to each churros and chocolate for breakfast or any meal ever again, if I want to live past 30.

So after that, we all went to the kitchen where there was more food than I’d ever seen in the kitchen. We were going to make Paella with Rosa and all the seafood and such was out. There was shrimp, calamari, clams, eggs, and chicken.

So we made the paella with Rosa, truly terrified by the fact that in less than two hours we would have to consume yet more food. So between breakfast and lunch, we, of course, took another short nap. After eating yet again, we all sat around and relaxed and did whatever.

At 6ish Maggie and I met up with Dre and Stacy and went to a local church that the girls had heard about. So we saw Jessica and Irina again and met a few other international students. There was Hannah and Jaime, a girl and guy from England, Alyssa, a girl fro Washington State, and Laura, from the Dominican Republic. They always go out for tapas after church, but we had to get home, so we weren’t able to join them. It’s so great to finally meet some new people who aren’t in our program and have other friends. We’re going tot meet up with them on Thursday night for tapas and some kind of bible study/discussion.

Mondays Maggie and I don’t have classes in the morning, so yesterday we went to a local park/botanical garden and ran. It’s about 10 minutes from our house and is right on the river. It’s the prettiest place and perfect to jog in.






After that I walked around the city for an hour or so, ate lunch, took another walk and went to class.

Yesterday night we met up with some other students and Jesus and Carol and went out for tapas. It was fun to be with a smaller group of students and hang out with Jesus and Carol.

It’s funny, I really love Salamanca, and I’m truly content to be where I am at the moment, but my thoughts have been back in Uganda this past week. It’s hard not to constantly compare life here to life there and see many differences in favor of Uganda. I really miss the fellowship and how nautral it felt to live there. I guess it’s good that my heart still is there because it means that it was truly meaningful.

my fav ugandan road


i sure miss these girls.


and these stinkers too!



so that's the word for now.
but before i leave, let me just say, my parents are FLIPPING SWEET!
thanks for the love y'all.

peace. -c