Hi Andie, Pam, Tara, Sherryl and Nic! (people who have this blog linked to their email via Reading List or Follower) Hi Debbie and Sid! (friends who check in to this blog and respond via email) Hi anyone else. I love hearing from you. At this point home seems like a tiny speck on the horizon with the big wide ocean of Africa surrounding us. I'm not complaining, mind you. It's just how it feels sometimes and hearing from you keeps me connected. I woke up to the chir-up, wahwahwah, hooo-hooo, and rup-rup-rup of the birds. As I set the laundry outside I saw this other worldly sky through the trees. It was something out of Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Set in a pink and blue morning sky, the full moon was setting over the mountains. This scene was framed by our trees which feature leaves that flutter like feather dusters in the breeze. Thorn bush hedges, a low bunch of clouds dressing the tops of the mountains.... it was enchanting. I'm often captured by the beauty here and God waters my soul with it. A friend from Uganda once said, "Don't you have beauty in America? Visiting Americans are always exclaiming how beautiful the mountains are and taking endless pictures (which we also had done)." This gave me pause. Mmmm... is this a characteristic of Americans? I think, yes, valuing the beauty of nature is a common characteristic of Americans. I like that about Americans. I also like that Americans are often very generous, like to laugh, and are hard working. That would be you who are reading this. Yeah. It's nice living in a country where generally the U.S. and Americans are appreciated.... which, comments about picture taking aside, is true in Tanzania. A professor here told me," If America and other Western countries removed their support, Tanzania would fold." (I don't refer to the "United States" because many people don't know us by that name. We're known as "America" here.) Because the Europeans were colonizers in Africa the relationships with those countries are a little more complicated. Mmmm...from feather duster leaved trees to the colonizers of Africa. I've taken you on a mental rabbit trail.Good morning!