In the next half an hour Simon and I will be piling into the Suburu and directing our four wheel drive up North. We are going to Tacoma today for a short visit. I have a doctors appointment to make sure all of the African bugs that were in me have now died. What I'm really looking forward to is staying with Abby and Tim and seeing some very important friends. On the 2nd we head back to Portland for dinner with my Podge and my sister who is flying up from San Fran. She is coming up to join us on our boating adventure.

This is quite a pleasant surprise; getting to see my dear friends so soon again. When leaving for Africa I really didn't know when I would be home again. What a nice turn of events.

We are off to pack the car!

Traveling through Africa

Here are some pictures that I promised from the school. More are to come once I get my lab top in Australia.

The beautiful Pemba beach palms.

Emme and me taking two of the toddlers to the beach. Each Saturday students signed up for the tramp to the beach where the children would role in the sand and splash in the rolling waves.

Tiago dancing on the beach. He was a crazy character who loved attention and was full of life. If you ever wanted to laugh Tiago was good company.

As we walked along the beach we would were easy prey for those selling treasures such as necklaces, chocolate, and fruit. Who could resist a smile like that?

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Time has passed, adventures were embarked, life changing decisions have been made. . . and I've not written a single word about it. I'm sure you've been wondering did that dark hole of Africa suck Meag in and devour her completely? Sorry about my lack of communication. In all honestly when life starts moving at neck breaking speed it is difficult to keep the updates coming.

This past month has been wonderful. I went on my three week outreach to a district in Mozambique called Zambezi. This time was challenging due to leadership miscommunication, vigorous schedules, and spiritual tension but I felt Gods closeness during the entirety of the trip. Thank you for your prayers concerning safety and for the direction of my next steps.

After Simon and I returned from our different outreaches we decided that we never wanted to be separated like that again. It was more difficult than either of us imagined. This vow lead us to change plane tickets, buy new ones and donate a load of clothes and extra goodies to lessen our weight as we made our way up to Tanzania.

We traveled through Tanzania making our way up to Kenya where we were going to spend some time at Empowering Lives International. However, we never made our final destination. But before I explain that let me tell you about our favorite place in Tanzania; Zanzibar. We loaded ourselves onto a ferry and 3 hours later had arrived being welcomed by the tantalizing smell of spices, fire lit vendors with fresh displays of squid and bustling streets flooded with passengers and tourists. We loved wandering around the stone town. Everyone greets you with a friendly "Jambo" and Simons dreads quickly won us favor with many of the locals. As we walked through the maze we would pass children dressed in the Muslim skull cap with books tucked under their arm or old men resting against an intricately wooden carved door. They would flash their toothless smiles at us and raise their hand in frail greeting. Our planned three days quickly expanded to four than five than six as Stone town nestled itself into the depths of our hearts. But, eventually we decided it was time to continue our travels so we loaded onto a personal dhowl (a boat) with 40 other people, bundles of clothing and a chicken to make the journey across the sea to Tanga.

Earlier I had mentioned that we didn't get to our final destination. We had full intention and had boarded a bus called the Eldoret Express. Lonely Planet informed us this trip would take three hours. Knowing the unpredicatableness of African travel I added a couple of hours expecting a five hour journey. As we waited for the bus to fill up I started to pray because I'd been sick recently and could feel the affects already creeping up. Eight hours later we are still bumping along the Kenyan roads and our destination was still a couple of hours away. I had to get the bus driver to make a personal stop for me to use the restroom which was me squatting behind the bus. I gradually was getting worse and we were frantically praying for Jesus to heal me. The bus stopped to let off another passenger and we quickly decided that this was as far as I could go. The night was spent in a dingy hotel that reminded me of the film Born into Brothels. The next morning Simon made the executive decision that we would return to Nairobi where we could get a doctor more easily if the need arose. And it did. I slept terribly that night on a top bunk which I had to descend every 15 minutes to run to the restroom. I had a constant fever that made my face swelter but the rest of me freezing. In the morning we started me on malaria pills and a blood test confirmed that I was positive. The next five days were spent in bed resting and with Simon making runs into town for food and medicine. Praise God though. The case was really mild and I'm all better.

These are just a couple of our adventures in Africa and now we are back in Oregon recuperating and preparing for the next stage of life.