So far away... Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

Embarassing, embarrassing, embarrassing. It's been almost 2 months since this thing was last updated. With valid reason, though. The last month of any semester is always the craziest, and for teachers, this is no exception, AND I've been on Christmas holiday for the past week, so it's just been a crazy whirlwind and it still hasn't really hit me that I've been living in Rwanda for almost 5 months. Yikes.

With Christmas just past, it really has hit me just how INCREDIBLY blessed I am. Just sitting here, thinking about all the many adventures I have to regale my audience of 2 with, it's hitting me again, what a fortunate lass I am. It's unbelievable, really. I know I haven't done a blasted thing to deserve it all, yet – here I am. God is so good and really is hitting me over the head with that simple fact daily.

Okay here goes. Item numero one for discussion: Thanksgiving adventures.

Although this was over a month ago, I realize many of you haven't heard of my about the excursions over Thanksgiving break (that's a lie – both of you have, but maybe I just want to write them out for my own pleasure... there's nothing wrong with that). For our thanksgiving break, my 3 roommates and I took an exotic journey across the border to Uganda. We took a 10 hour bus trip to Kampala, the capital, and then to Jinja, where the source of the Nile river is (yup, THE Nile). There, we went white water rafting down the Nile.

Um, not sure if you heard me – Whitewater RAFTING down the NILE.

It was SO amazing and crazy and scary and amazing. It was a day long excursion and there were actually some ridiculous class 4's AND 5's (that's the worst they get, for those of you that aren't into the sport, like I am...). Our raft flipped while going down one of the rapids, but we made out alive if you were concerned.

After Jinja we went back into Kampala, which if you can believe it, gave us all mild culture shock. Kampala is much more westernized than Kigali – complete with a bowling alley, mall annnnnd.... movie theater! We were a bit overwhelmed, but hit them all up and undeniably LOVED the city and Uganda and the trip as a whole.

#2 – KICS life

It's official – 1^st semester as a teacher is complete. It's quite an accomplishment really. There were definitely days (and by days, I mean weeks) when I just thought the end would never come. Some supernatural phenomenon would occur and time would just freeze with me teaching for eternity. Like some weird and pretty boring Twilight Zone episode. It's not that I was having a bad time, in fact it was a blast, but tiring beyond belief. An average amount of sleep was no more than 6 hours per night during the week (less on the weekends... ;) ). Nonetheless, it was a great semester. I know I've said it before, but I was truly blessed with an amazing group of kids. Just hilarious and so much fun. Plus I got a ton of cute Christmas stories out of the last week or so (remind me to tell you about Alex asking me to correct his letter to Santa for him...)

Number Gatatu (3 in Kinyarwanda...) – Christmas expeditions

Well we've just returned from yet another RIDICULOUS vacation, this time we went to Tanzania to see Mt. Kilimanjaro and go on safari. Again, after writing that, I can't believe my life. I feel like somehow, it's all a mistake, and God's going to come to me soon and say “Whoops! Cady, you actually weren't supposed to experience all that, so I'm gonna have to take some of those memories back. Sorry!” I'm not sure why I have been so blessed to be able to have experienced it all, but here I am. So, my roommate Shannon, our friend Liz, and I flew into Moshi, Tanzania on Dec 29^th and BAM – theres Mt. Kili, herself. Su-reeee-al. We stayed

 with some “twice-removed friends” (a friend of a friend of Liz's) who was working with the Amani Childrens' Home, a street kids outreach home that works to reunite street kids with their families. We got to go there for lunch and play and hang out with a few of the kids who were still around during holidays. I fell in love with with a little girl named Zufu, and spend the afternoon pretending we were models and taking pictures. Precious :)

We spent the next couple days in Arusha, a more “touristy” town where most of the safaris take off from. We were supposed to meet up with 2 of my other roomies in Arusha on the 1^st and

 start our safari that day, but since things never quite pan out the way you might expect here. We changed our safari plans and left on the 2^nd. We had the most adorable jolly Tanzania guide, Zachariah, who not to be vain, but was quite smitten with our lovely little group and doted on us throghout the trip. He loved to sing whatever he was thinking, so would always call the animals out to see the “beauuuu-tee-fullll guuuuhls” he had in his car. Just a doll, simply a doll. Even while he was fixing our truck which broke down 4 times (no exaggeration there folks – literally required PUSHING to get it to go, thus we rarely would turn the car off...) Another amazing thing was that we could only afford a 3 day, 2 night safari, while most serious expedition-ers spend about 8 days, and we saw every possible animal out there. They allllll came out and it was amazing! We even broke the rules once and drove up right close to some sleeping lions, who woke up and ran around our car. I'll say it again – it was amazing.

We went on safari in the Ngorongoro crater and in the Serengeti, both some of the most gorgeous places I could possibly imagine. The crater is called the “8^th wonder of the world” and for good reason. It was beautiful and amazing! Right when we got there, we got out to stretch our legs and a big ol' baboon came up. We all got out to take pictures, and that little booger, scooted right past us, swung himself through the open door of our truck, went inside and stole our bananas.  It sounds like I'm making it up, but I've got the pic to prove it!

I have a multitude of other stories to share, but I doubt anyone reads this far, so I'll stop right here. I love and miss you all and would love to hear from you soon! Happy New Year!!!