Dreams.

I finally posted some pictures on Facebook last night. It took hours to reorder them and post comments, but it was so worth it, and I had to do it. So check them out if you want – Uganda and Malawi.

So much emotion poured forth as I sat in the coffee shop going through all the photos. It was a difficult task having to scour the photos and place the worthy ones in an album for all to see. I kept thinking gosh aren’t they all worthy of album entry? Aren’t all those kids smiles beautiful? How is a girl to choose? Do I have to choose? Of course you have to choose! I mean not EVERYONE wants to see ALL 4,000 of your photos.

I have recently been feeling as though my entire African experience was simply a dream. Perhaps one night I went to sleep and dreamt about Africa, and in my dream Africa came alive and everything seemed so real. The sights, the smells, and the people were all I had hoped for and more, and everything was all I had imagined it would be. And then after a LONG, deep sleep, I woke up reluctantly back in grey, rainy Seattle. Sounds like a beautiful dream huh? However, the reality is that our African experience was REAL, and we not only have less money in our bank account to prove it, but we also have beautiful pictures to serve as visual reminders of our time.

These pictures make the experience that much more real. Just by looking at the pictures the experience is nearly tangible. If I close my eyes tight enough all my senses come alive. I can touch it. I can taste it. I can smell it. I can see it. I can hear it. I can touch the hands of the children. I can taste the nsima. I can smell the red dirt of the land. I can see the beautiful smiles and the bright, beautiful colors. I can hear the sound of the drums and the stomping of the feet upon the earth. And I am reminded once again that my experience was real.