25 days

In 25 days I will be getting off of a plane in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I will have traveled on three planes, for over 30 hours, across three continents.  This journey has taken me to 3 countries in Africa: Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda. Good thing 3 is my lucky number. :) I have met some amazing people from all around the world and have seen lives changed by love. This year has not been easy for me. I have missed home more this year than I did last year, and a lot of different situations throughout the last 10 months had me ready to hop on a plane home. It was my students, however, that reminded me to relax, learn to laugh every day, and not take life so seriously. I will never forget these four students. They have changed a lot about how I view life.
I was recently at a "transition dinner" where we talked about how to best transition to another place. One of the things they suggested was writing down all of the things you will miss as well as the things you wont miss. So I thought I would post some of my list on here for you to see. Today will be the things I will miss and I will post the things I wont miss in a few days. Here it goes (in no particular order)!

THINGS I WILL MISS:
- My students
- My coworkers and friends
- The children I work with from the orphanage (If I could bring them home, I would!)
- Cheap produce
- Cheap flowers (seriously...a dozen roses for $2.00 ?!)
- The green of the trees and plants
- The way the sky looks enormous and fake
- Being able to see so many stars at night
- Our caretaker, Francis
- Our house-help, Lencer
- Our night guard, David (and the way he wears a parka and mittens even when it isn't cold outside)
- My dog, Ginger, who went to a missionary couple to be taken care of
- Our neighbor's dog, Delta
- The colors all around (fabrics, flowers, and just everything!)
- My housemates and all the fun we have watching tv and cooking and baking
- The amazing animals that I see. Giraffe, zebra, elephants, and lions will never get old!
- Cheap travel to other countries
- A car with awesome petrol mileage
- British/Kenyan English
- Fresh food without preservatives
- My mosquito net (it's like sleeping in a fort every night :) )
- Being around people from all over the world
- The fact that there is something new and exciting every day, even after two years.
- Cheap spas
- Being in a place where people genuinely care to know the answer to "How are you?"
- People who are optimistic, even in the worst circumstances
- Living in a Christian country where you are literally free to share about God with everyone
- Dorman's coffee
- Kenyan fabric (I seriously can't get enough!)
- Our beautiful campus
- Being outside all the time and not trapped in a building.
- The diversity of the landscape in Kenya: beaches, savannas, mountains, big cities, small villages, etc.
- My church and the worship in Swahili
- Cheap travel/excursions
- Kenyan food
- Seeing monkeys all the time
- The intensity of driving (sometimes I wont miss this)
- Getting clothing MADE for like $10
- Having a "guy" for everything and it not being expensive. There is a curtain guy, a washer guy, a dryer guy, a car guy, a veggie guy, a clothing guy, a bead guy, and anything else you can imagine. They are called fundis.
- Cinnamon rolls every Wednesday and doughnuts every Friday.
- The noises that express how students are feeling. "aye!" "Tststs"
- Stepsils- so much better than halls cough drops.
- Medication that you can buy without a prescription for like 1/10th of the price.
- Movies you can BUY for $1
- 3 cents a minute to call the US