Home....

Greetings from Addis Ababa! I arrived here on Friday afternoon, after a long, but safe, flight. One of my students for the year was sitting in the seat in front of me on the plane, actually. It's been great to see the folks from Beza Church that I spent time with while I was here in May, and to get settled into the city again. It's the rainy season here, so it's actually quite cool, in the 50s and 60s. For those of you in the DC summer swamp, you can imagine that it's a bit of a weather shock, and I have indeed brought out my "layers." Today was a "three-layer" day. It was sunny for awhile, though, when I was enjoying a pizza on the patio of Denver Cafe (one of the "western" food chains in the city, where we enjoyed our daily macchiatos (or three) during the missions trip).

The city looks great, though, even in the rain. The mountains are a bright green, and the flowers are all in full bloom, as well. I feel surprisingly at home here, which is a good thing.....it's where I need to be right now, and it's a great feeling of peace to be here in that.

The jet lag is still going on. But, I was able to sleep until 5:30 this morning! This is progress. And, it's good to be busy again, with less craziness and more of a routine. We're in the middle of our teacher orientation week, and classes start a week from today.

My school schedule has been finalized: 7-10th grade French, maybe 11th grade French (we'll see....that year is the equivalent of AP French, which I'm sure they would be great at, but I'm not quite there this week) and ESOL support for those kids who need ESOL instruction and support. Should be fun!

Not too much else to report at this point. Thanks for you prayers for my travels! I'll post something later in the week once things start to get going at school.

And, everyone from Beza says Hello to everyone from NCC.

That's soooooo Alli.....

So, I went to pick up my plane ticket today. This morning, I received some emails from my school director in Addis, whose previous emails apparently hadn't gotten through to me in the last several weeks. He really wanted me to get to Addis this weekend to be there for our teacher orientation Monday morning, and mentioned that he was willing to pay the difference in airfare.

It turns out I was able to switch to an earlier flight, without a fare increase.

I'm flying Thursday morning. This Thursday. Two more days. It'll be good, though.

So, if y'all can move up your prayers for my move and my flight to this Thursday, instead of Sunday, that would be awesome.

Other than that switch, things are good.....taking care of last minute things in DC, hanging out with friends, and finishing up the packing.

Next post, from Addis.

The clock keeps ticking....

After a great week at home in Omaha with the fam, I've kept up the travelling, although with a slightly altered schedule. It was great to drive out to Pittsburgh for my friend Lauren's ordination, and then to spend a couple days in Philly. The plan was to head back to DC on Wednesday to catch a flight to Chicago yesterday.....but, I got some weird stomach bug and wasn't able to make it back from Philly, so, no Chicago this weekend.

But, this will be good resting time, and hopefully I'll be productive in my last-minute "to-do's" as well. I was able to sell my car in Philly, to a newly arrived Egyptian family, which was a great relief. And, I'm feeling ready to go. Still some packing left to do, but I'm ready for this crazy adventure. Still reviewing some French, with some "Amelie" watching today.

I'm floating between friends' couches until I leave, so many thanks to those of you who have offered living rooms. Much appreciated.

It doesn't look like the new travel security will affect me all that much....luckily, I don't use shampoo :-), and I'll be able to pack the toothpaste and other travel things in my check-ins. The new international luggage restrictions limit me to two 50 pound check-ins, but I'll make it work. Including my five flavors of lotions. Of course. But, I can still use all the prayers I can get for the 16 hour international flight.

If you're in DC and want to hang out next week, holla.