Seconds and Years

Riding - at the end of the world!

Usufu and his chicken! haha

Preparing njamma njamma for dinner!

Basiru found a hat

Even after washing our feet twice a day...

Took us four hours on the road but we made it!

Wow, what a year! And the start of a new one, with endless possibilities! I've had a spectacular year, but it's been rather emotionally exhausting! I began it with road trips with friends, my second semester of college, working at a yogurt shop, and deciding whether or not to go to Cameroon! Now here I am, and here I have been for nearly 6 months, knowing what it's like to eat a grasshopper, haggle over fifty cents in the market, climb mountains in long skirts and flip flops, ride bareback (and fall off) in the African wilderness, see puppies be born, be proposed to numerous times (sometimes in the same day), relearn Geometry to teach Katelyn and Lum, try to take an online class from a college half a world away, and be away from my loved ones for the longest period of time since I've known them. However crazy it's been, I can't imagine doing anything different. This is the life!

Also our last adventure last year (haha.... ) was a wonderful couple of days up in Sabba Njowra! One of my favorite places on earth. No electricity, no showers, no plans! It was all riding and hiking and eating and sleeping and taking pictures and carrying water on our heads! and playing cards and visiting and soaking up all the beauty and nature and simplicity of life. Ahhhh. We rode the horses up there and back, a four-hour ride each way - which makes for sunburnt faces, sore buttocks, and marvelous memories. Yesterday when we got back we were all so exhausted we just sat around the living room laughing at everything and nothing! And then we celebrated the coming of the new year by stumbling to our beds and falling straight to sleep. Good way to go out, I say. 'Twas an unforgettable year altogether. :)

And this year I get to spend six more months in Africa doing strange and exciting and challenging things, see my family, my boyfriend, and all you other dear people, read new books, meet new people, welcome into our family my newest niece (or nephew... due in February!), and throw my energies into hobbies and jobs and adventures I'm not yet aware of. Woohooo! And we are getting off to a good start by spending a few days at the beach in Limbe, starting tomorrow! Life, it's great! Happy, happy New Year to all of you!