About Me

I am in South America from October 3rd until December 17th! I am spending the month of October volunteering in a child care center in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Then I have a month and a half to explore Ecuador and Peru!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

I am HOME!!!!

I did it! 2 1/2 months in South America! And now I am HOME!!! Safely. And guess what? I did not get robbed! I am so thankful that I did not get robbed. If you let your guard down for a second your camera or phone or backpack will be stolen. And whoever stole it will resell it to buy food or gas for cooking or Christmas presents for their family. So I had to be careful all the time and it paid off. I am home safely.

It is so great to just relax. I still haven't unpacked my bags yet though. In all honesty I have spent the last day and a half sleeping. Either I have something or my stomach is having a hard time adjusting to American food. Either way, it is great to be home safely.

I spent most of Thursday (I had a 12 hour lay over) in the Atlanta, Georgia airport. There happens to be an Army boot camp and center there so I saw hundreds of Army people in the airport.

To put this in to perspective: I went from being surrounded by Latin men to being with hundreds of polite Army fellows. It was a shock in and of itself to not be whistled at every 5 seconds. I ended up eating lunch with a really nice Army guy from Aurora, CO who had just finished boot camp. He was so happy to eat pizza! And so was I. Just before we parted ways we said goodbye and hugged. Then I started walking away. I took about three steps then turned around and grabbed his arm and said, "Thank you for serving our country." And with tears in my eyes I walked away.

That night at about 7 I landed in the Denver airport. I was so relieved/overjoyed when I saw Mikala standing near my baggage claim! I yelled "Mikala!" and ran to her. Then my mom and Olivia appeared. :) (I don't have words for what I felt when I saw everyone after so long in South America).

I picked up Olivia and swung her around! And gave my mom a big hug. I cannot imagine what it was like for her to send her baby to South America. I know you prayed for me a lot while I was gone Mommia--thank you! It kept me safe.

After a nice dinner at Maccaroni Grill and a 4 hour drive back to North Platte I found Adam and Ivan asleep on the couches. I woke them up and said hello then crawled in to bed with my dad just before he had to go to work.

It is great to be back in America. I love this contry! And there is nothing that can enforce that better than leaving it for a while.

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