Last few days in North Africa

Hey everybody! We've had an amawing time here in North Africa--I can't believe it's coming to a close! This past week, we've had a lot of fun hanging out with all the friends we've made here. The boys have been hanging out a lot with the Five Speedboys and some other guys we've met through our English classes. They went cliff jumping at the beach a few days ago. The girls have been helping out at a home for pregnant women. In this country, if a woman is pregnant and doesn't have a husband, she has to spend two years in jail. This home offers the women shelter and also offers care for the kids. We worked with the toddlers--SO cute! We had a blast, but also had our hearts broken for one of the real needs of this place. You'll see pictures and more info from that when I get home.

This week, two of us also had an opportunity to go to a choir concert, which was really fun for the music geek.... :-) We tried to go to their first performance, but got there late, so we had to go to their second performance, which happened to be at a consulate in town with a bunch of fancy dignitaries! Jordan did some sweet talking with a waiter who put our names on the list and we somehow got in to spend an evening listening to this choir and hobknobing over orderves and drinks (soda for us unfortunately) with a bunch of fancy rich people! It was pretty surreal...

We're speding our last full day in country at the beach with our friends, where, God willing, I will get to ride my camel!!!! I promise to take lots of ridiculous pictures and post them all once we get back to Australia.

After the beach, it's packing, and then we leave for Paris on Monday afternoon. Our group has one night in Paris, then we leave for Hong Kong. We have a one night layover in Hong Kong, so we'll be able to see a bit of the city there as well. We're back in Sydney by the 2nd, and we'll have a few days to sleep off the jet lag before we head to the aboriginal communitites. I'm hoping that all of our travels go well, that the airline doesn't lose my guitar again, that I can fit everything in my bag, and that all the souveniers I bought will make it through customs without being confiscated by the nit-picky Australian government...

A month an 2 days until I'm back on US soil! Can't wait to see you all!!!

Update

Hey guys! Hope you are all well and are enjoying your June! I can't believe it's the middle June already!!! We've had a great week here in North Africa. We've been a bit bummed out because the lady who was supposed to organize our work time here has been really sick, so she hasn't been able to get us into the places we were supposed to be working at. Mr. J ha totally been orchestrating our time though, which has been really cool. We have been hanging out with a girl we met on the train down to the mountains who has just moved to the area we're in and doesn't know a whole lot of people yet. She's an absolute sweetheart and we love spending time hanging out. Yesterday, we went out or ice cream and talked to her about Mr. J for like two hours! She was really interested and she wants to buy his book, which is really exciting! We're hanging out with her a bunch more before we leave, so hopefully we'll get a chance to talk more. The boys have been hanging out with these kids who call themselves the 5Speedboys--watch their YouTube stuff here: http://www.youtube.com/user/5speedboys they're legit! They have a whole gang of guys who do this thing called "free running" which basically involves running down the street and doing crazy acrobatic flips off of whatever comes across their path. When I met them, they were filming a short movie about not doing drugs for a film festival in the city. If it wins, it's going to play at the Cannes Film Festival!!! We were there watching the shoot, and we actually got to be in part of the movie! It should be up on YouTube in a few months--I'll be sure to send the link when I get it. The guys have had some good opportunities to hang with the boys and share with them as well, which is really cool. English classes have been going well too. We taught another song this week, and I helped teach the beginning English group their colors and the days of the week.

My body is recovering from a second round of the Arican Montezuma's Revenge, which was not fun, especially when we were at the beach WHERE THERE WERE NO BATHROOMS!!! I had some special bonding times with my team mate who held a towel up or me so I could go to the bathroom in the bushes.... The day we went to the beach was my one opportunity to ride a camel, and I didn't get to do it because I was sick. Suuuuuuper bummed out, but I'm going to try to go back if I can possibly mannage so I can tick another life goal off the list. I am feeling better now and am in better spirits, but still bummed about mising out on the camel experience.

I uploaded new pictures which you can see here: http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/smithmj13/
I don't have time to organize them or add comments to them today, so I'll leave the timeline and captions to your imagination until next time. Hope you enjoy!

Love you and miss you all!!!

New Pictures

Hi friends! Back safe and sound and finally recovered from the death food poisoning. I uploaded some of my photos from the last week or so that you can peruse here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/smithmj13/

We’re getting settled back in with our other friends and getting ready to get our hands dirty. The woman who plans our outings is really sick right now. She had surgery a while ago and is undergoing some partial chemo to get rid of the growths that the surgery couldn’t remove. The next time you talk to Mr. J, think of her. We’re not quite sure what we’ll be doing here because she’s not well enough to organize our work times, but hopefully we’ll get to do something. We are for sure helping with the English classes that are going on here, which is really exciting. I’m stoked to go see the kids again this week and review the stuff we learned last time.

I’m having a great time here, but I’m starting to really count down the days until home (literally—46 days from today, I’m on a plane!). We’re at the point in the school where you’ve been living with the same 6 people for 5 months and they’re really starting to get on your nerves. I still love them all heaps, but I’m trying to keep my distance so I don’t accidentally kill one of them…. Love you and miss you all!!!

Back from the mountains!

Hi friends! Sorry haven't updated in a while--turns out that remote mountain villages don't have internet access. ;-} For those of you who didn't know, our group had an awesome opportunity to spend a week trekking through the mountains. For those of you who know how out of shape I am, you can imagine that it was a bit of a challenge at times to go trekking anywhere from 3 to 10 miles in a day with a legit hiker's backpack on, but I made it! Our guide for the first part was an amazing local who showed us the sights and hiked us all over the earth and back to stay with these amazing village families. It was so cool to stay with them, play with the kids, and see a bit of how they live their lives. We ate some AMAZING home-cooked food, which we have all fallen in love with and will never be able to get again because it's only cooked in this mountain region... The scenery was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! It reminded me a lot of Arizona, but with a lot more mountains. I took almost 1,000 pictures, which I will try to get up on the internet asap (might have to wait until we have more reliable internet access--not at an expensive cafe).

After the first four days, we switched guides and worked with an international trekking team to see the last few villages. We met up with another international trekker and got to know him a bit--super cool guy. On the first day with them, we went to a brand new village that the leaders had never been to before. This might have turned out to be a mistake, because I think we ate something there that gave half of the group food poisoning. We decided that since so many people were sick, it would be better to cut our trip short. A two hour taxi ride down from the mountains after spending the night outside on the ground to be next to the squatty potty wasn't the most fun experience, but I made it back alive and think I am on the mend (aka, I don't feel like I want to DIE every second I'm awake anymore, only every 30 seconds or so....)

We're planning to stay where we are until everybody is over the sickness and then head back up to the place we came into to continue our cultural exploration. Be thinking of us and hope that we all get better quickly and have more opportunities to meet awesome people and experience this beautiful land as we continue our travels!

Made it safe

Hi friends. Writing a quick note to say I made it safe to my destination. We're having a great time so far. The only mishap in our travels was that the airline lost my guitar. Poor Gojita has been through a lot lately... She's back safe and sound now but her case has a few new shiners to remember the ordeal by. The gang is waiting for me so we can go out and see the sights, so I'll write more later when I have a chance.

Love you all!

Last update from Le Gault la Forêt!

Hi friends! This will be my last update from our lovely town of Le Gault la Forêt in France! We leave tomorrow for North Africa! I'm so excited, especially because I'm finally done packing! Living out of a suitcase is definitely my least favorite part of traveling.... We've had an awesome time here at the base getting to know the staff and the communities around the base. We've made some really great relationships here and it will be hard to say goodbye. We're also having to say goodbye to the other half of our team that is staying in France. I will definitely miss them heaps!!! It's sad to leave such a beautiful place with such great friends, but I know that there are wonderful things in store for us as we head to Africa!

I'll try to keep you updated as often as I can, but I doubt we'll have reliable internet access while we're in Africa. Be aware that I'll be sparse on the details of where we are and what we're doing because of some security concerns, but I'll try to drop a line here every once in a while to let you know that I'm having a blast doing whatever it is we're doing. I'll try to post pictures when we get back to Sydney or when I get home (two months and counting!).

Miss you and love you all!!!