Well, here goes nothing!!

So as I sit here today, July 6th 2009, I am roughly 37 hours 57 minutes and 23 seconds, give or take, from the labor pains and ultimate birthing of a new life, or at least a drive to the airport during the first sun rise i'll have seen in some time. I am leaving Greenville, SC en route to MALI via Philadelphia, PA and Paris, France. Think of me this saturday morning as you wake up and begin the day....I'll be in africa!! but before I go I have a few thoughts on the matter I would like to share. First, AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!. Second, wow that really snuck up on me!! third, WOW that REALLY snuck up on me!! We ( my pressumed fellow volunteers) will share many things in common and I would imagine the interminable wait for this day to arrive is one of those things, yet now that its here may I be the first to ask: REALLY? something so ominous and looming, so grand and so infinite often only stays that way though a constant suppression of its arrival, and now that the day hath come what does this turn into? The more intrepid among us may say that its something to be grabbed by a horn like protrudance and wrestled into submission, others may look away, squinting through sunburnt lids until it resembles somthing still shadowy yet accesible. Still others, and may I count my self among this group, will face openly and honestly this thing that only throuh experience, will define it self. I must be glib here because i know know other way to describe what I am or am not getting myself into. I realized the other day that I COULD do this alone, I am strong and futher, I didnt NEED anyones approval, yet its BECAUSE of my wonderful family that I WANT to do this, and its in part because of them that I WILL do this. Enough thanks cant be given to my parents, granparents, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, et al, for being so engaged, so caring, and so accesible!! I love you all and I cant wait to repay your kindness with fantastic stories!!!!!