Shout Outs Continued

HI YEA I AM AROUND, RICHARD
GLAD TO HEAR ALL IS GOOD OVER THERE
GOD BLESS RICHARD

:-) Mom, Dad, Nicole, Tee, Serge & Ruby… Miss you guys and love you tons!
Nicole I wish you were here with me I miss you! April, lovee you and you would love it here. Jameson, love you… the kids would adore you here. Miss you and love you.
- - Kat

I have margarine on my thumb because Richard poured boiling water on me and that’s the African remedy. No, it wasn’t on purpose… I don’t think. Mike

Hey Ma, Pa and crew, I miss you all sooooo much! It is incredible out here and I may not want to leave :-) I can’t wait for return trips when you can come see this amazing country with me! Thanks for all your support and I will see ya soon!
To all my friends, I miss you all so much! You will be all shocked to know I tried oryx tonight. Didn’t like it, but hey I tried it! Mandy, I wish you could have made it out here with me, but next time, eh?
Matt, I miss you! Hope Ben and jerrys is able to pay the bills without me in the country :-) I love you all! Give yourselves hugs and kisses from me!
Xoxo
Melissa

Today some of the team traveled to Rehoboth to pick up Maderyna & Memory (including Kat... plus, she is at the cemetary, repacking clothes, by the fire & playing with kids... some of the pics she is looking away though, but she's here!!). She is the most beautiful baby!! Chubby with little black curls. She can fall asleep anywhere and is always making some sort of noise… although I haven’t heard her cry. Richard & Thelma came back to the plot for a braai. SHE REALLY EXISTS!! I have been joking with the family that she is always around right before or after I leave. It was so nice to meet her and I hope that I have more time to talk with her. It was great to see Richard again and hear how that past year has been on the game farm. Tomorrow we head to Arandis. Although my heart breaks to leave here, I am looking forward to spending more time there and really see the place that many I know have come to love. God is leading me more and more to come back here soon. I am just praying for more clarity in that and moving forward with my steps. Please pray for Joan’s mom... Meegs, I haven’t seen any pencils yet, but then again, I haven’t been to any store that may have them… my eyes are peeled :-P love you Laura!! Glad to see you've figured out this internet thing!! :-) Jodi, you are right here with me!!
Love ~G

Shout Outs

HI EVERYONE! Thank you Mike for leaving us comments! I’m having an awesome time here, but I miss all of you a lot. Mike – tell Matt I found Red Bull and tell Christina to try to stay sane while I’m gone. I love you all, I miss you all, and I’ll be seeing you soon. And oh yeah, say hello and I love you to my parents as well, haha.
Love, MOLLY!!!!

Hey mom and dad it’s Jaime and Steph! We miss you but we’re having an amazing time. Jaime hates 10 hour long plane rides and will not be returning on one so please send a boat to pick her up. The Metro in Paris hates Ton and she hates it in return :-) Say hi to bisabuela for us. Love, J and T

So most of my family is here with me…. but hi dad! Tell the cats I say hi, and I hope Seth is still alive… I guess :-) Everything is good so far, I wish I had more blankets though, what else is new? Hope everything is still just as exciting in NH as when we left! Hi friends! Love, Steph L

Hey everyone, me and Dennise are doing good, and having a good time. Dad don’t have to much fun mowing those lawns and going to Conway, tell the Gourdeaus and everyone else we say hello. Denny is being a mother to everyone and I’m just having fun. I got beat up by monkey mountain today and the pineapple fanta is amazing as always. Brit, Stash, and Livi I miss you guys! And ricky I hope you figured out how to comment! Byee, Casey

Hey everyone! Who knew I’d be shivering so much in Africa, I guess I should have listened to what other told me more closely. I love it here though, something completely different but so amazing. Anddd, there’s no humidity here! So have fun sweating back in New Hampshire! Love to my friends, family, and anyone else who may be reading this! I can’t wait to tell y’all about it :-) LOVE, Erin.

Hey everyone! (Shaw’s, Mariany’s, Hallowell’s, Vernet’s, and Ryan’s haha) I miss you all and I hope you are all doing good. Africa is great, I actually got up wicked early to see the sunrise, it was really cool but really cold :-) Okay, well I’m off to play with some kids so love you guys!!!
Love, Amanda S

Hi there Mike, Emily, Luke, Ethan, Nicholas, Louise, Claudette et al. – Greeting from Namibia. Made it safely here Wed Africa time. All is well! Who would imagine having cold feet at this time in a sleeping bag in Namibia?!?!? What an amazing place! Emily, this is a great place for stars in the sky at night – no other lights except the moon – crystal clear! Climb (very short) Monkey Mountain this morning to see the sun rise. That’s it for now.- will be traveling to Arundis on the coast tomorrow. They do have a variety of peanut butters here. Love to all, Dorothy XXXXXOOOOOOOxxxxxxxxxxoooooooo
All comments are welcome.

Hello to all the HDHS crew!!!! – Suzanne, Jane, Michelle, Jon, et al – We made it !!!!! and so did Dennise!-no one would have ever guessed that two years ago she was adamant that she would NEVER fly that long over 10,000 miles!!!!! The kids are great!! Lots of “eye openers” !!!! It takes an experience such as this to realize how good we have it! Such warm and wonderful people who are passionate about making a positive difference in people’s lives! And miracles do happen!!!!
That’s all for now….to be continued!!!

Hola! Sonciary, I miss you so, there are so many things already I wish you could be here to share. Also, it’s quite cold, and Mike is no good at keeping me warm. Dieter and Joan send their love, he has had many wonderful things to say about you :-). XOXO + lots of love to Chico. Mom and Dad, miss you and love you both, so much to share with you. Jason Roaf, I have had a Grapetizer for you, and am gaining converts. More to come! – Kevin.

Hallo hoe gaan dit? its me Toivo. Just wanted to send a shout out to all the 2005 and 2006 crew, Rebecca, Al, Colin, Chawla, Mj. I miss you guys and hope you come again to this beautiful country. This year is a lot different from last year…... well, there are only 5 guys and the rest are ladies, YO! Chawla, sorry India lost South Africa the other day! Mj hope you come next year, so we could climb some mountain or something! Toivo

Check back later, I will be adding more updates tonight! Also, I made it to the internet cafe... check out a few picks... Thanks for all the comments!! The team loves to hear from you!! Love ~G

Where does my hope come from??

Today started off pretty mellow, everyone woke up at their own time. Sat by the fire, had breakfast and then we unpacked and sorted the Hope’s Promise bags. We had a time set with Dieter for 10am to have a presentation about what their ministry is and their vision. About 11am it started… ahhh, African time. Kevin & I were setting up the projector with my laptop while they were outside for the introduction. We had everything all set pretty much instantly and then suddenly it decided not to work…nothing had changed, everything just decided not to work. It was a bit nerve racking… Although I know that Dieter can talk, I had NO idea how long the “introduction” would take. Kevin suggested another adjustment and I finally just prayed that it would all come together and then Kevin said “Oh-oh, better hurry up…” the GINORMOUS presentation opened up just as the team started walking toward the door, the sound hadn’t been tested (we decided to use the sound system that the girls will be using when they dance). And everything went off smoothly. No one realized that we had spent the last hour+ trying to fix the projector that shouldn’t have stopped working in the first place. Ahhh, the humor… wish I would’ve just prayed in the first place. I think that is one of the biggest lessons for me to learn on this trip.

After the presentation we took a “tour” of Okahandja. We drove through Vyf Rand, Nau-Aib, visited the cemetery & drove through the more affluent parts of the town. After lunch, some went to build a jungle gym at one of the preschools where Joan mentors the teacher. Some went to the Ark, an orphanage, to evaluate some of the special needs students. And the rest of us stayed behind to sort through preschool supplies for Joan. Once we completed what we could we met over at Maria’s preschool to play with kids and see how the construction was coming along. Her school is amazing and she is truly gifted in teaching these kids.

Dinner was Kudu Stew… which was utterly amazing. After dinner we debriefed about the day and it was truly a tough day for most of the team. They have experienced things that most have never seen and it’s is heart breaking. They learned that Namibia is the third highest in HIV/AIDS cases (and remember, most people are not said to die of AIDS, but are listed as having died of the sickness that their immune system couldn’t fight off). They learned that the world is a much bigger place than they ever imagined. They learned that there is no plan… at least not one of our own… because the second we come up with one… God is sure to change it in order to grow and mold us. And for some, they learned or were reminded that God is faithful. Our bags and guitars arrived this evening during our debrief time. Steph has her own clean underwear and we celebrated by singing everything you could imagine around the fire… songs from the ’05 CD, songs from the ’07 CD, and some other very special songs… :-) even if we couldn’t remember all the words… they were so very special!

I still haven’t made it to the internet café. Hopefully I will have more pics up soon. I got to get to bed. Sunrise is coming quick & we are going to see it from monkey mountain.

It's Great To Be Home!

We arrived safely in Namibia!! The flight to Johannesburg was pretty uneventful… most of us were asleep pretty much the entire time, which was totally needed. The flight into Namibia was short and sweet. Jaime thought that the wings were falling off, but it wasn’t true. It was a pleasant turbulent-free ride. We lost 2 guitars and 2 bags, but we are praying they arrive quickly. It was wonderful to see Dieter & Joan again and to step back on the land that I have come to call home.

We broke the team in easy, we stopped at the mall in Windhoek for pizza so that I could run out and grab team money & tango cards to activate the team phones. The waitresses and waiters sang a belated Happy Birthday African style to Molly complete with authentic African drums.

On the way up to Dieter’s we saw a springbok and Melissa also spotted an Oryx. We arrived at Dieter’s this evening, got a fire going and had chicken soup and brotchen (bread) for dinner. Tonight was just a night to chill, relax & hang by the fire. Once 10pm came along we gave the team the permission to go to sleep & most of them took us up on it. The rest of us sat by the fire some more as Mike (the only smart one that didn’t check his guitar) strummed a few songs… it was wonderful listening to him strum “Stars” as I looked up at the amazing display of God’s handiwork. Soon it was just Jackie, Erin, Molly, Toivo & I sitting by the fire being taught some Afrikaans and laughing the night away. It is so great to see Toivo again and hear how the past year has been for him. Tomorrow we will spend some time acclimating the team by going into Nau-Aib and possibly Vyf Rand.

I am using Dieter’s dial-up connection so I will not post pictures until I get to the internet café. It’s 2am here… time for me to get some sleep or I will be useless tomorrow.

Oui, Oui Paris!

The journey so far has been quite the adventure. Our resident bartender, Jackie, was serving up drinks from the galley… you can take the girl out of the bar, but not the bartender out of the girl. After a 6 ½ sleepless (and man, did we try) plane ride we landed in Paris. The original “plan” was to go to the Ibis Hotel and rent one room to store all our gear so we could venture out into the city. Let me tell you, things in France are much easier said than done & praise God that He sent Dorothy along on this trip… she has been an amazing asset with her knowledge of French. We finally found the correct bus and an Ibis Hotel, not the one we had spoken to on the phone … but it worked out better because they allowed us to store our luggage in a closet just for a tip!!

Then the adventure continued with Mike & Dorothy leading the way. And there was plenty of humor in that for the crew of 18 over-tired and giddy peeps… a true planes, trains and automobiles… ummm I mean buses… Believe it or not we were serenaded by a couple of accordion players and a tambourine player. I suppose it’s a dance team prerequisite! We found a wonderful café with great sandwiches and the most amazing strawberry tart thing (well worth the 25,000,000 points… heck, I’m in Paris!!). We then ventured to Notre Dame. Then off to see the Eiffel Tower. I am still amazed that I am actually in Paris. It’s much different than I thought it would be. It’s a bit dirtier with lots of graffiti coming into the city, but still beautiful. I would love to return one day and spend more time seeing the sites.

Now we sit at the terminal… we are so spent and tired from today’s adventure that we decided to come to the airport 5 hours early so that we could chill, find some dinner & I could take some time to post.

Check out the pics from the journey thus far --> at the link to the right.

Come And Listen

The time as come and all the last minute packers are still packing... me, I am readjusting and repacking (as well as running some last minute errands). Today the journey begins... we will be meeting in Boston at 2:30pm and flying out at 5:30pm. The cool little countdown clock --> is at 7 hours... I remember when it was over 135+ days... phew!

We will be arriving in Paris 6 1/2 hours later and we'll take a trek out into the city... I am seeing the world one layover at a time!! :-) If you want to know all the details, the flight itinerary is over on the right also... I will try to update the blog again while enroute.

The past few days I have been in contact with Dieter & our friend Richard Hanna (the Jamaican chef from 2005). Richard is in Namibia now and he will also be in Arandis... maybe we can get him to make us some of his yummy creations, we'll have to sweet talk him though... ;-) Dieter is very excited that we are coming and he will be at the airport when we arrive.

Thanks for joining us on our journey... technology is so cool, Welcome on the adventure of a lifetime!

Tell all your friends!!

Join us on Thursday, June 14th from 4:00pm -9:00pm at the Hudson Papa Gino’s on Route 102 near Hannaford Plaza. That night Papa Gino's will be donating 20% of sales made by our families & friends towards our trip.

Invite everyone you know... this flyer must be copied and brought with you so they know who to credit! Thanks for helping and I hope to see you there!