where has the time gone?

guys, I can't believe I am less than a week away from flying to Cape Town. It feels so surreal at this point. I haven't started packing (procrastination...much like my first round of packing if you will recall), I haven't bought any of the things I need... luckily James & I have his mom who was so kind to reserve a car & hotel for us, so I do have a place to stay when I get there... but that's about it!

it became VERY real last night at our "Love Feast" (what they call the celebration at the end of lecture phase) that we really are getting ready to move on to the next portion of the trip. I was on the dinner prep team, and somehow I got voted to be the person in charge of the cooking - a feast for 30 people - - 3 legs of lamb, 5 whole chickens, sweet potato casserole from scratch, roasted potatoes and onions, roasted pumpkin, salad with fresh veggies, apple crisp, strawberries. Not a small task. Not to mention our oven is sooo old and not effective... Insane! I cut myself twice, have 4 blisters on my hands (from peeling the sweet potatoes), and was SO exhausted by the time 630 rolled around (after 4 hours of cooking)! Everyone was asking me questions left and right and I had to manage everything. At the end, they all thanked me a thousand times and said I was so good, not snapping at anyone, not getting stressed, just keeping everything flowing. Which is good because on the inside I was getting nervous about the time and everything coming together. Let's just say its hard to cook for 30 when you have to wait for one dish to be cooked so you can use that pan for the next dish. All in all, it was REALLY fun, and I loved being in charge of something like that (I secretly like being the go-to person I think - - it was fun)

anyway, i don't have a whole lot of time to write - we're doing a lot of outreach prep this week and won't have time to come get on the internet... but hopefully once james & I get to Cape Town, we'll do some updating together !

love and miss everyone very much...