First Impressions

So, It's my first week here and it's been amazing!

     Flying here was a little crazy. I had 2 layovers: One in New York and the other in Amsterdam for 3 hours each. So, basically I left on the 15th at 12:30 in the afternoon and got here on the 16th at 8:30 p.m. (not including driving time before and after). The good thing is that everything went smoothly and I didn't lose my luggage.

     I almost lost my water bottle at the beginning because I forgot to dump the water out before I went through security, but I walked back a few minutes after they took it from me and they gave it back to me. Praise God! (I had just bought it the day before and wasn't about to waste my $5.00 haha)

     So, Africa... One of the first things I noticed was that everyone drives on the left side of the road. I found this out when I tried to get in the right side of the car only to have the taxi driver direct me to the other side. The next thing I noticed was that everything was in English (which I found out is their main language here). As we were driving down the road towards the house I would be staying at, I saw lots of tall buildings and advertisements. You would almost think (driving there in the night time) that we were in a large city in America. Though, the roads were a little rough at some points and randomly would turn into dirt roads for a few hundred feet.

    I didn't get to see a whole lot of the scenery the first night because it was already dark when I arrived. But the next morning I woke up to see the most beautiful sight. It almost looked like a jungle right outside the window. Everywhere you go there are awesome trees and flowers and vines... The American botanical gardens have nothing on this. In my personal opinion- who wouldn't want to live in Africa? I'm loving it here.
  I was going to take a bunch of pictures but I lost my phone the first full day I was there (pray that I find it). I will hopefully be able to access a camera sometime soon, but for now I will just have to describe everything.

      Oh, good news, I inhaled a bug yesterday. It was fantastic.... I wasn't sure at first if I had actually inhaled it, but a few minutes later, my suspicions were confirmed when I coughed the little critter up... It wasn't the most pleasant experience of my life :P.

       
God has been so good. Almost every prayer I've prayed for this trip has been answered. The flights went smoothly, my luggage didn't get lost, my cold is getting better, and I'm not even experiencing any jet lag. I love the family that I'm working with. All of their daughters are so welcoming and I feel almost part of the family.

If you think about it please pray for:
- My health (my eye has started acting up a little)
- That I'll find my phone
- Grace to be able to accomplish everything that needs to be done while I'm here (I still get nervous talking to new people and I'm definitely out of my comfort zone :P)

Thank you all for reading and for your continued prayer support :)

Stay Blessed!

- Katelynn
Loving it