Today is the day -

Today is the day that I leave for Ethiopia. At 5:30 pm, I'm leaving the apartment that I have lived in since exactly three years ago yesterday. Tim Schuman is driving me down to Logan airport in Boston where I'll be departing at 9:30 pm this evening. I arrive in London tomorrow morning at 8:45 am their time and chill out there (probably in a coffee shop) until 1:50 when my flight leaves for it's final lap to Ethiopia. I arrive at 2:00 am Ethiopian time on August 27th, but to me it will feel like 8:00 pm on August 26th. That will be weird!

When I arrive, there will be a hotel staff member holding a sign with my name on it to escort me to the The Ararat Hotel in Addis Ababa  http://www.ararathotel.com.et/. I'll crash there untill the morning. Believe it or not at 9am I'm meeting up with an old friend form high-school who just so happens to be in Ethiopia... in the same city... at the same time as me!!! We'll hang out for a while, grab some food, exchange some money, and register with the U.S. Embassy. Then in the afternoon I'm making the 2 hour trek south to the Yetebon community where I'll be staying for thefirst three months at least. When I'm there I'll be working with the native instructures teaching english to and running sports programs with the kids. What a great way to adapt the the culture and language.

When I'm there, I'll be about a 7 mile walk/drive from the closest town with Internet. So I'm not sure exactly how often I'll be updating this blog. But I hope to do it weekly (I know I've been really bad at updating it this summer {sorry about that!}).  But until then, please be praying for my as I make the treck across the "Big Blue" to the wonderful country of Ethiopia!!!

Grace and Peace be with you all~