The Story of the Paparazzi that Wasn't: Featuring Scarlett Johansson

Here I stand, like the leg of a resting caterpillar soon to start to only stop again. This monotony will continue. Not much to view by way of environment. Just me, the inside of the airport, and loads of people. Hmmm…people. Maybe people watching will provide some entertainment. Scanning the local vicinity: nice carry-on bag, cute toddler, wups...someone wasn't supposed to be in the priority line for security, cute outfit. Actually wait, really cute outfit. Significantly cuter then everyone else I've seen. They must be from New York or something. I'm no fashion guru, but here's how I would describe the outfit. Dark-wash jean jumper. The material seemed nice and light, 90s black chunky heel sandals, a beige hat with black tie, and glasses. Real or fake? No clue. Can't forget the baby in the baby carrier close to the Momma. That is an adorable baby boy, and he's pretty content. I'm impressed. Wait a second, this lady looks familiar somehow…I have no idea how I know her though. Someone I went to high school with? No, can't be. Oh well, this happens to me all the time anyway.

Finally we creep to get our licenses checked as well as our tickets. The lady in front of me with her baby goes first. She replies with a soft and kind 'Thank you'. 

Ummm, I know that voice. I know that voice! It's Scarlett Johansson. The Scarlett Johnansson. Right in front of me? Everything makes sense now! A sudden rush of nervousness comes over me. Keep calm, don't be one of those crazy fans. 

Conceal don't feel or else that security dude with her will drop you in half a second.

I get through the line and get to the stack of buckets. For some reason I thought ALL large electronic items need to be taken out of the carry on bag. So I take out my fancy Canon camera and set it in the bucket. I feel like I'm being watched, but security watches everyone anyway, so I shrug it off.

Everything goes smoothly through the line to be reunited with my belongings. But, the whole time I'm thinking: Should I try and get a picture with her? No, then everyone will know and she'll get swarmed. Should I talk to her? Maybe…if I've got the guts or opportunity…or if she talks to me first. Haha, yeah right.

All the sudden it hits me. Scarlett Johansson is standing beside me and can see my fancy camera…she probably thinks I'm some paparazzi. Oh no! I place it comfortably and safely back in my bag. I turn and realize there is a half circle of people in my way for me to go sit on a bench to put my tennis shoes back on. Scarlett Johansson is in the middle of that half circle.

I'm so nervous. Bag? Check. Shoes? Check? Now walk. I walk right in between the security guard and Scarlett Johansson with my head down and a weak "Excuse me" as my only phrase uttered in her presence.

As I sat to put my shoes on, I realized I could be a paparazzi right now.

But I won't.

It just doesn't feel right.

I do regret not talking to her though. 

So Scarlett Johansson, I doubt you will ever read this, but on the off chance you do, this is what I wish I would have said to you…

Thank you. Not only are you a fantastic actress, but you have played strong female characters that rival with male action heroes. The fact that you have played as female action heroes gives me hope and belief that I can one day be the next version of Lara Croft or Batgirl or a new and different kind of action hero. Also, I just want to say that your baby boy is beautiful and the affection you show him is also incredibly beautiful. I was also wondering if you had any advice or words of wisdom for me concerning acting and such because I am an actress. 

I guess after all that, we would have to see where the conversation went from there, if anywhere.

I'm Back!

After leaving SAFI, we stayed in Lilongwe at Korea Garden Lodge as always. We didn't do much, just chilled. Then it was a quick trip to the airport. The trouble was trying to exchange our money. None of the banks at the airport were able to help us out to even exchange it into South African Rand since that's where our next stop was and maybe we could convert from there. No deal. So I ended up getting some more gifts for family and friends. I didn't have too much kwacha left. The two flights to New York weren't too bad! I had to climb over a nice lady when she was sleeping so that I could walk around and such. Thank goodness I never woke her up!

Then we got to New York! Everything was so big and crazy! My first time in a subway! It was so cool! Pretty dark, but cool. I was going to try to take a picture, but then everyone was waiting for me to move on, and I figured I didn't want to get yelled at in New York my first time there, so I continued moving on into the subway. We stopped at Emily's hostel since she is staying for a couple of days. But then we got to go see Carolyn!!! YAY!!! It was so fun to see her! Oh man I've missed her and how upbeat she is and I can totally be myself around her and we just know each other so well! We walked around and saw Time Square. It was crazy! We got bagels and cream cheese and then I had some gelato. We ended up bike riding around central park. It took us about an hour and twenty minutes. It's a lot bigger than I realized! There sure were lots of hills too. Bike riding around made me realize how much I miss having a bike and just riding around. We got pretty sweaty especially since it's so humid there. It was an overcast day too though. We returned our bikes and got some pizza. Yum!
Then Renee and I had to take the subway back to the airport to make sure we made our flight to Utah. We didn't even get lost! Score!

As we were waiting for our flight, the time for boarding was growing closer and closer and I was starting to feel sicker and sicker. My stomach was having a lot of issues. Then I got that sensation where you start salivating more and you know you're going to throw up. So I bee-lined it to the bathroom. I finally boarded after another problem and I got gatorade hoping it would help me out. I searched for a bag in the little pouch in front of me. Nope. Asked the flight attendant for one, and he delivered rather quickly but seemed not to think anything of it. The people next to me seemed to grown whether verbally or in their mannerisms, I don't remember, I just remember they seemed to not want to sit by me anymore (not they really did anyway, I guess). Thus, my issues continued on even before taking off. I had to get another bag and after sitting down was offered gum by the kind folks next to me. I laughed and said thank you and grabbed some of my Altoids for their sake even though I knew there would still be problems and it was pointless...but I was hoping the opposite. I told them I had eaten something bad and that I'm not a wimpy nervous person who hates flying and that I was really sorry. Then I heard the woman ask her husband if he wanted to switch seats so he was farther away. Nope, he wanted to stay tough. By the middle of the flight I had a system down and it was working pretty well since Renee was knocked out asleep the whole time. I was obviously feeling weak, and couldn't hold down liquids either. No good. I was starting to have other issues if you know what I mean, so I would have to go to the bathroom often anyway for that. So by the end of the flight I was exhausted, but kind of a pro at the whole thing. At the end of the flight I still had enough strength to walk, but I felt myself slouching over not holding myself upright. I heard the couple next to me talking about me and saying that they were impressed I made it and said, "she's tough, did you hear her going, 'Come on, you can do this. Suck it up. People have thrown up on planes before.'" That sort of made me smile. I really did lose count as to how many times I threw up and went to the bathroom in general, but let's just go with a lot.
We landed and I was so grateful! I could be with Lindsay! We would have access to good doctors and medicine to heal me. I could eat saltines, drink more gatorade and sprite through a straw and curl up on my side to ease my stomach. When I saw Lindsay, she had a big sign for me! She could tell I was out of it and weak. I seriously wanted to cry. To cry from joy because it was so good to see someone who I love and trust to help me get better. We went to wait for my bags and then Carson and Morgan and Calvin showed up out of nowhere! That made me feel even more at home that there were more of my family to welcome me. They realized I wasn't feeling well and got to helping me. We went to the vending machine for some Sprite and then I saw my parents come out from who knows where and towards me! I was shocked! They flew in from TN! They saw how I was weak and couldn't really stand up straight, so they started helping me out too. I went from having one person to help me out, to six! Thank goodness!
The rest was just sort of suffering through the pain. I had a fever and then we ended up going to the ER because it wouldn't stop. I got some morphine and fluids in me since I was so dehydrated. They released me with some medicine and the diagnosis of traveller's diarrhea. Yuck. So I have been slowly improving and saw a regular physician recently and if I don't keep getting better, they're going to need a sample. Yup, a sample.

Pictures of New York to come!

Nkhata Bay

This past week we went to Nkhata Bay and stayed at Njaya Lodge. There was some pretty delicious food there. I was able to have whole Butterfish. It was really tasty! Also, they had thick crepes with sugar and piece of a lemon that you could squeeze the juices onto the crepe. It was so good! The sugar here is not as fine as sugar in America and I really like it. I like the crunch of the sugar particles here, it's really satisfying.

The view from the eating area of the Njaya Lodge

Also, it rained for the first time this season! It rained for the first time that I've been in Africa! It was so exciting! The rain started our first night in Njaya and poured down on our metal roof, so it was incredibly loud. It was pretty cool though. I got to relax and enjoy the freshness and smell of the rain while reading a book that I brought. It was really nice.
We ended up going on our kayaking trip on Friday to Saturday. It was really nice to get out and do something as enjoyable as the rain was. It rained Friday morning, but stopped at around lunch time, so that's when we headed out. I was the person in the back of the two person kayak. My job was not only to follow the person in front with their paddling, but I was supposed to pedal with both of my feet to direct us. Sometimes I would get caught up in paddling and my timing and I would forget that I had my right foot almost all the way down on the pedal so we would start veering off away from the shore where the waves get bigger. It was pretty funny though. I started getting the hang of it after a bit. After a while I realized that I felt like I was Hiccup in How to Train Your Dragon with Toothless! It was the greatest realization ever! The pedals were metal and I just envisioned myself on a dragon sometimes. It was pretty exciting.

Paddling along!

We were able to go cliff jumping. It wasn't too high though. Probably about 20 feet, maybe 25 feet if that. I ended up being the first to jump. It was great! I was really nervous, but I don't think that I would say that I was scared. I knew I would be fine if I jumped and I wouldn't get hurt, but heights are just pretty nerve racking!
Then we continued kayaking and then snorkeled around a small island. There were so many beautiful fish! So many different colors. Sometimes when I looked towards the darkness between rocks, I started to scare myself as to what could come out, but nothing ever did. It was a really fun time. Then we got to the beach and had a nice mashed potato dinner cooked over a fire with some vegetables and some seasoned chicken. It was so good. The best and most seasoning I have had all summer!
We slept on the beach, which ended up being rather uncomfortable, but we got as much sleep as we could manage.

Made it to the beach for the night.

We haven't changed yet, so it's a bit chilly still.

Some kids on the beach with us before nightfall.

We all woke up and ate breakfast (toast with baked beans) and then packed up to kayak back. Kayaking back seemed to go so much faster for some reason. Maybe our muscles were more used to the paddling motion. Again, I was the back paddle and pedal person. After a while of paddling, Emily mentioned to Khumbu (our main guide) that there was a lot of water in the kayak. He came over and opened my skirt covering to see how much we had. He said that it was actually a lot and that no wonder we were slowing down, haha. So he grabbed a cup and started scooping the water out. Khumbu commented on the fact that the water was warm. Haha, I was laughing so hard and saying that I promised I didn't go to the bathroom in the kayak. I wasn't expecting him to say that at all! He told us also that we were more likely to flip over because the water would be swishing back and forth to make us less balanced. After Khumbu got a ton of the water out, he tried to pull my skirt covering back on. We were both still on our kayaks in the water, so it was pretty difficult. He kept floating away and I just kept laughing about it all. So then he started laughing and while laughing told me to stop making him laugh. Haha, it was great! It probably all looked really funny, and we were finally able to get the skirt covering back on. Then Khumbu showed us another cliff jumping spot. It was so incredibly high! It had to have been 50 feet or around there! He told us that he has jumped off of it before, so we asked him to show us. He actually did! It was crazy and so awesome!

Wearing our skirt coverings! 

We had some lunch and found out that our kayak had a small whole in it. So that's why our kayak was full of water! We had some delicious papaya and bananas with rolls and avocados, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onions, groundnuts, and oranges. So tasty!

We got back to the Lodge and found out that if the waves had been any bigger that day, we would not have been able to kayak back. They had gotten pretty big because it rained earlier that morning and was still cloudy. It was a great couple days!

On Sunday we were able to see a forest of rubber trees! They are so cool! One of the men around came over and scraped on part of the tree and sure enough white ooze came out of where he scraped and came down following the ledge of scrape on the tree and down on a spout that led to a pail to collect the rubber. It was so neat to see firsthand! After it dries it becomes more beige and stretchy! A lot of the people around collect the dried parts on the tree and make rubber band balls and sell them on the side of the road. I am amazed at how cool these trees are!

Also, before we left, I ended up seeing the lake flies! There were lots of big swarms of them! I remembered seeing them on Planet Earth one night as we watched in Provo! It was crazy to see the swarms above the water! I didn't see any close up, but I saw them fly towards the beach nearby and then continue onto the land. I'm glad they didn't fly at me! It was so cool though! The swarm was so dark above the water and at first I had no clue what it was, and then some of the men nearby told me they were lake flies! So crazy!

The lake flies are the dark cloud above the water if you can see it!

We drove back to SAFI on Monday and today we are getting together odds and ends and leaving to go to Lilongwe today after lunch. As I have been organizing, I found some things that would be nice for Adam to have since he is extending his stay for his research, so Emily, Renee, and I gathered them together in one of Adam's large baskets that he bought and I ended up carrying it on my head over to him from our hostel to his. It's not too far, but it was still a challenge. It was really fun to walk with it on my head though. Kevin and Aida and some of the other workers loved seeing me do that. They got a kick out of it and were saying that I was becoming a Malawian woman! It was so fun to see their reactions. They love seeing people try. It was a blast!

Canoes that are usually used. If worked on Monday through Friday all day, it will take about 3-4 weeks to finish. Definitely harder to balance in. I can only imagine.

My chaco tan lines...yeah...

Cool sand on the beach!

Picture Catch Up

Here are pictures from when we went to the bungee jumping and rope swing with Adam, and then to Victoria Falls! That sure was a great day! Hope you like the pictures!

The shadow of the bridge we were on that Adam bungee jumped off of.

Don't worry, I had a guest pass! The bridge is in Zambia and Zimbabwe!

Adam getting ready to bungee jump!

Adam is doing the rope swing on this one.

Victoria Falls!

Another view of the Falls.

We're getting some mist on us!

Cute lock I found on the bridge.

Double rainbow all the way!

Victoria Falls is so big and beautiful!

Two bridges. The falls drop off right past those rocks there!

We're so close to the edge! Don't worry, it's safe.

Zambezi Swimming Team!

I thought I wasn’t going to be able to have internet, but turns out, it’s free here at Korea Garden. Renee has been kind enough to let me use her computer and such. Well, a lot has happened in a little over a week. Last weekend we spent the day in Lilongwe. At the market, I had met Lifford there and had gotten some paintings from him. He ended up getting Renee’s and my number and we were just thinking it would be for if he got paintings he thought we would like or something like that. Whelp, turns out he was inviting me to his house. Hmmm…nope, definitely not, gonna have to say no to that. He kept calling and texting though! Yikes! In one day, he called 32 times. It was pretty rough. We had to put the phone on silent in order to get through the day. The thing is that I had already told him that I would not be able to see his house and that I had work so I would not be able to. I guess he still wasn’t satisfied with that answer after he thought about it. It was starting to get pretty weird though, so none of that’s going to happen obviously.

Then we went to get onto the bus early in the morning. We had to be at the bus station at 5:30am! We were going to get up super early to walk there, but we were told that one of the streets we would have to walk on was known as ‘Devil’s Street’. Yup, that definitely changed our minds on the walking bit. Kevin, the BFI driver, was so kind and woke up early to take us to the bus station. Turns out John wasn’t feeling well and decided it wouldn’t be wise for him to take the long bus ride with few breaks, so Kevin came back and ended up taking John back to SAFI to get better. Our first bus ride was from Lilongwe to Lusaka. So we had to cross the Malawi-Zambian border. It was pretty exciting. It went by pretty fast too. There were a bunch of men waiting on the other side after we got our passports stamped to exchange money for us from the Malawian kwacha to the Zambian kwacha. It was pretty funny. Almost all of them would end up asking each of us to exchange, but I didn’t need to. After that we got back on the bus and then finished up the bus ride, which I believe was a total of 14 hours. It was long for sure! Looking back, I don’t know how I occupied my time. I know I was in and out of sleep sometimes, and when I was awake, I would just think, or snack on some food we brought. My iPod was out of battery life, so I was without that. It sort of surprised me that I did so well without it. I’m glad though! When the bus pulled in, we heard a bunch of people yelling, ‘Malawi! Malawi!’ It was really funny! It made me feel special, but I think they were partially ready to exchange money with us.  When we got to Lusaka, I was so amazed! They had a couple of billboards that are probably bigger than any other ones that I think I have ever seen! There weren’t any super tall buildings, but everything was so much nicer than even Lilongwe. We checked in to a hostel and met a guy from Germany. He was nice and talked about some infestation experiences he has had in Africa. I’m glad I didn’t have any problems like his! We woke up early to catch our bus to Livingstone, but ended up getting one a little later so we had time to look around the bus station area. There were many vendors, and taxis, and money exchangers about. We headed out on our bus ride and it ended up being about 8 hours. So much sitting! We checked in to a hostel, got a bite to eat, showered, and went to bed.

Our first full day in Livingstone was much more fun than a long bus ride! For the first part of the day, we went to see Adam bungee jump and do the jump swing too off of the bridge that gets you from Zambia to Zimbabwe. We didn’t have to get our passports stamped or anything because we were considered as ‘guests’. But, I was still able to walk over to Zimbabwe partway! Wahoo! We got to watch lots of people bungee jump and swing. It was really exciting! I met a British lady who told me that her son is doing both for his 18th birthday and that when she was younger, her husband and she were in New Zealand at Skipper Island and bungee jumped and then got dropped into the water instead of being pulled back up, and then they got to white water raft down the river. How cool is that!? I want to do that so badly! I really wanted to bungee jump too, but it was so expensive. One day though! It was fun to watch everyone jump though! Some people would get so nervous that it made me nervous! 

Next stop, Victoria Falls. This place is breathtaking! It’s the biggest waterfall I have ever seen! I feel so lucky that I have been able to see it with my own eyes! We got to take a bunch of pictures. Adam came up with the idea that we could have a competition of seeing who could come up with the best picture (not including the classic touristy pictures…something unique and different…a different viewpoint). Challenge accepted. We had a lot of fun trying to capture the beauty of the area in different ways and angles. We have yet to determine the winner. We went to an area right where the water fall actually falls and we were sitting right before the actual waterfall. It was incredible to be that close to such a huge cliff. Don’t worry, we weren’t super close or anything, but it just seemed so crazy that danger was so nearby! Something so beautiful and expansive, but so dangerous at the same time! Emily, Renee, and I were sitting and enjoying the scenery when a bunch of school children surrounded us! We decided to leave them to let them enjoy their time near the water, but one of the teachers asked to have a picture of us with the children. Then they said, ’Come on kids, get around the tourists.’ Then the kids said, ‘Your tourists.’ To which I replied, ‘Yeah, what are you?’ They didn’t know how to respond to that, so they didn’t and they just smiled. After the picture they were sort of touching our hair and saying, ‘Pretty.’ It was pretty funny. Apparently in the area that we were in of the park, there are a lot of baboons, but we didn’t see a single one! That’s probably a good thing though, because a man from South Africa that we met in our hostel said that they can lift up a stump and could beat a grown man in a fight easily. I’m glad we didn’t have to mess with any of those guys. After Victoria Falls, we ate Italian! Yum! We even got some gelato. It was so nice and cold on my throat. We got back to the hostel and I braided Renee’s hair. It’s the best I’ve ever done!

Emily woke up early to make sure that we would have spots to all go white water rafting down the Zambezi River. A man from Ireland who is now recently living in Germany and his girlfriend that we made friends with and another girl from America that we met came too so we all decided to get in a raft together. We had our security briefing which was pretty great. There is a rope that goes around the raft that they refer to as the ‘oh sh*# line’. Basically, you need to get down and grab that line when they say so because something big and bad is coming up. Our river raft guide was Malvin. He’s a funny, cool guy. We went through some paddling before getting out on the rapids. Now, I’ve gone down the Ocoee River a couple of times and have white water rafted once in Virginia I think is the other one, but the Zambezi River, it’s somthin’ else! The water from Victoria Falls makes up the river, since it is still high water here, we had to start at rapid 7 because the others are too dangerous before it. Rapid 7 was easy enough, a good start. Then off to Rapid 8, known as ‘The Midnight Diner’. I definitely did some dining and dashing on that one. Let’s go through it. So basically, if you go through the right, it’s a class one rapid. We said no to that one. Then if you go through the middle, it’s a class three rapid. Meh, maybe. Then Malvin told us that if we go on the left, through the Midnight Diner, then it’s a class five with a bunch of class four rapids following it. Yes. Our raft decided to be brave and go for it. This is what happened: Malvin is yelling for us to paddle forward. We are all digging in and paddling hard. This wave is huge and we are going for it. Malvin might have told us to grab the line and get down, but I sure didn’t hear him. We are almost completely vertical with the raft and then we start falling over to my side of the raft and I see people coming over and onto me. I was right behind the front person and on the right side. Down into the water I go. I have no idea which way is up and I feel the current sweeping me away. I’m under water for a while, long enough for Malvin to climb back onto the flipped raft. Emily, Sarah, Renee and Hannah are all hanging on to the raft and get back on while Me, Neil, and Adam are going through class four roller coaster rapids with just our bodies. I was the farthest down the rapids and had gotten through about three or four of them with just my life jacket to keep me going and I had swallowed so much water. I looked back and saw the raft so far away! Neil was close to me and I felt a tugging on a strap of my life jacket pulling me down some into the water. It was him. He was in survival mode and grabbing whatever he could to help him stay up. I yanked the strap away. Crash, another rapid pulling me down! Then I get up and see a kayaker coming to my rescue! He tells me to stay calm as I kung fu grip the handle at the front of the kayak. It was Baby Face, Malvin’s cousin there to save me and to keep me from drowning. He kept telling me to stay calm. I probably looked terrified! I was still just trying to breath at that point I think. We kayaked through the rest of the class four rapids and I finally got back onto the raft. It sure was terrifying! The next rapid was a class six or seven, so everyone skipped it completely. There was another rapid that we fell on in the very beginning too. It was still pretty scary, but I was getting used to it maybe or something…I don’t know. So we got flipped off and I got swept away again after being stuck under the raft for a while and then all of the sudden the raft was coming up behind me and I got stuck under it again and had to push myself out from under it and then grab onto the rope so that we could flip it and I could get back on to safety. It got flipped over on me so I again had to get myself out from under it amidst the rapids we were going through and then I was pulled back in. I looked around to grab anyone else to pull in, but it was just Adam, Sarah, Neil and I. Emily had to go down with a kayaker down three more rapids! Renee was with a kayaker for a bit and then got thrown onto another raft. Hannah was also with another raft. Everyone was okay, but it was so weird to not know where they were at the time. I missed my team! There was another time where two of our teammates almost fell out at a rapid, but Emily and I were able to help pull them back in. It was an exciting day for sure! We even saw a crocodile and two baby crocs on rocks along the river. So turns out there was a whole other element of danger that I hadn’t even thought about! After that, all the other guides and the kayakers named us the Zambezi swimming team because we always had to swim through the rapids. It was pretty funny. We ate lunch and watched the video with all of the teams. Ours was definitely the most exciting because we actually fell. They even played ours again in slow motion. There were pictures too! It was really great, we enjoyed it a lot.

Then we got snacks for the early morning bus ride the next day and just had some dinner at the hostel. We left early in the morning for our shorter bus ride of the two to Lusaka from Livingstone. Then we stayed the night in the same hostel as before on our way to Livingstone. We saw that there was a movie theater nearby and decided to check it out! We ate some pizza, and then watched the new Wolverine movie in 3D (I’m telling you, Lusaka is really nice!) and then ate chicken burgers and fries.  We had to wake up even earlier for our bus ride on Sunday. It left at five, so we had to load up at 4:30 so we ended up leaving at around 4:15. What an early morning! 

With the bus ride today, the bus was playing a lot of gospel music along with the music videos. It wasn’t my favorite, mostly because it was so incredibly loud at first. Then they ended up turning it down, and I was actually able to sleep or think and what not. I was able to meet a couple from Israel and a couple from the Netherlands. It’s fun to meet different people on the bus along with the hostels too. We sure have travelled a lot though. I just hope I don’t have permanent cankles, haha! 

It was interesting that when I am in Malawi and introduce myself to the people here, they do not make any connections with my name, but while we were in Zambia, when I would say my name to the taxi drivers and what-not, their reactions would range from, ‘Oh, that’s a good name.’ to ‘Oh, that’s my auntie.’ to ‘Ah, yes, Houston.’ It was really funny.

So now, we have a day to chill out in Lilongwe on Monday, and then Tuesday morning we leave to pick John up at SAFI and then we are off to Nkhota Bay for a fun kayaking journey along with meeting some of Kevin’s (our BFI driver) family and friends. He is such a cool guy! He’s helped us out a lot, so we try to treat him with food when we can. We’ll give him some apples when we go to get our own snacks and such. He truly is just so great and kind. He wants to do his best for us. We love him so much!

After the long bus rides that I have been through, I’m pretty sure the long flight from Johannesburg to New York is going to be easy as can be compared to a cramped bus ride where I can’t stand up and walk around or go to the bathroom whenever I want or get fed complimentary meals during the trip, etc. I never really appreciated those aspects of flights as much until this bus travelling experience.

I took a bunch of pictures, but I have not been able to load them onto my computer yet since I didn't want to risk bringing it with me this past week. Don't worry though, pictures will be coming soon!

And We're Off!

We finished our last run of sweet potatoes! Yay! It's been crazy with this last run because we check the water activity reading every two hours, so it usually gives us an hour break in between each reading since the readings take so long. Haha, the electricity and water wasn't working at all yesterday, so that was pretty exciting. We've been finishing up strong here with our week and are happy to have finished strong. Cleaning up has been pretty easy. We cleaned off all of the tables and Renee did some major sweeping throughout the whole room since we just usually sweep the major areas after each day. It was really nice to have such a clean room. I sure like it clean. The next day though, it had gotten pretty dusty already. The dust just finds its way everywhere!
In a little less than an hour we're going to be off to Lilongwe where we will then head to Zambia and then back to Lilongwe for a couple of days and then off to Nkhota Bay! We will be in Zambia and Nkhota Bay each for a week. After that, we will be back in Lilongwe and then on our flight back to America! It's crazy! I probably won't be able to have internet until I'm back in America, but I'll be sure to remember all of the exciting things we did and post pictures on here too. I have a feeling I'm going to get some good ones.
Well, have a great couple weeks!

Smarts.

After Renee and I were working on water activity at 12:00 during the day through lunch. So we were able to go get lunch right after John finished so that we could do a little swap and he could work on the water activity while we ate. The water bottle that I ended up with was dented at the bottom on one of the parts where it contacts the surface it stands on. It couldn't stand up at all! So my first solution was to get a knife and fill in the lack of contact it had with the table. That still didn't work and it wasn't balanced enough. I added in the handle for a fork too so that it might fill it in better. It was still a little shaky and then I finally realized the best solution!
I took the fork and placed the water bottle where it was uneven on the bottom onto the fork part where the food goes. The handle of the fork raised up as the other end lowered down. It was the perfect leverage and balance and the water bottle didn't tilt or get off-balanced. Yes! Solution made! I felt pretty happy about it...and smart too. If only I would have thought of it first. But sometimes, you have to try different methods out before you realize the best solution. And sometimes, those errors help to spur the thought of one of the best solutions. That's how it was with me! "Hey wait a minute, I have this fork, why don't I just use this?!"
This applies to so many things!
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” 
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.”
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” 
“Vision without execution is hallucination.”
“Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.”
All quotes by Thomas Edison. They are all so good, and there are so many more good ones too!!