Almost There!

In exactly 2 days, 11 hours, and 10 minutes, I will be leaving Minnesota for the year. I will be flying to Chicago for a week of orientation in Chicago with the other YAGM from each country program, then flying to Madagascar on August 20.

This past week has been full of goodbyes, packing, sadness, excitement, hugging my grandparents, calming my friends and families fears about Ebola, and even watching Madagascar (the cartoon that includes the majority of information I knew about my future home when I was called there).

I have packed and unpacked so many times.  The first time, my big suitcase weighed 77 pounds.  That's only 27 pounds over, but after moving things around and taking things out, I have successfully made two suitcases that weigh less that 50.  

In the next two days, I will probably unpack and repack a dozen more times. I will have my favorite foods that remind me of Minnesota and the people here my mom's mac n' cheese, beer made by my sister and her boyfriend, Mama noodles, and the thin mint Girl Scout cookies I have been saving in the freezer for months. Also, tomorrow, I get to go to the newest IMAX show at the Minnesota Zoo, Island of Lemurs: Madagascar. I get to take my cousin, Sam, to see the movie before I leave. She thinks the lemurs in Madagascar are cool, but the geckos are the best; Madagascar has 80% of the worlds geckos. And, I will continue to have more feelings of excitement and sadness all at once.

I was also very excited early last week when I heard that the Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the President of Madagacar was in the United States. Leaders from many African countries were invited to the White House for the 2014 African Leaders Summit. The link below is from a Malagasy newspaper that I have been reading online, the article is originally in French, but you should be able to get your browser to translate it for you. http://www.madagascar-tribune.com/Bilan-positif-sur-le-Sommet-Etats,20159.html

I will be sure to post again as soon as I can after I arrive in Madagascar, so you know that I am all there safely, but if you don't hear something right away, please don't fret, I don't know when I will be able to post; I will probably be able to post on Facebook sooner, so check that out if you are worried! :)

Thank you all for your words of encouragement, stories, thoughts and prayers throughout my time preparing for this journey.