T-Minus 18 hours

thanks to my awesome sister, Lisa: I HAVE A BLOG! i admit i was intimidated to try this seemingly mysterious hobby for quite some time, but with lots of encouragement I have decided to give it a shot.

i depart from San Francisco tomorrow at 4:30 and arrive in Nairobi, Kenya at 9am on the 5th.

it is all happening so fast but i am bursting with joy that i am able to go, and i feel ready.

i'll be interning at G-BIACK (Grow Biointensive Agriculture Center Kenya) in Thika, Kenya for at least the first two months. i just got a really nice email from Sam, my future Director explaining that he and his wife Peris are really excited to meet me at the airport. he's said that i will have a few days to rest from jet lag and then we will have our hands full with work at the Center since they had some heavy floods in November that wiped everything out. he says we will be "starting from scratch".

i'm sorry to hear about the flooding- but really looking forward to being a part of the rebuilding. i am sure it will be a great learning experience for me. i also cannot wait to meet their children. one boy and one girl, one is 10 and the other 12 yrs old. i can't remember which is which age.

Lis will be driving me to the airport tomorrow from Grass Valley. My parents have graciously (grudgingly??) accepted my choice to have her take me instead of making the airport drop off a messy, sobby event with all 4 of us. So the emotional exchanges will still take place, but it will be before I reach the airport. This way I have a bit of time to go from being freaked out and sad to remembering how excited I am that I AM GOING BACK TO AFRICA!!!

Thanks to my amazing family and all of your supportive comments, cards and phone calls in recent days. I can't promise I will have new posts right away, but once I am settled I'm sure I'll be eager to share more than you'll want to read about!

More to come soon!