Greetings from Uganda!

Check out some of my trip updates here: africanpromise.blogspot.com
It's the blog for our whole group, and I'm helping with some of the posts.

Things are great. I love it here - it reminds me a lot of where I served in Brazil - and it is fun being Suzy's assistant trip leader. There have been no major mishaps yet, and even though she put in charge of all of the money and hundreds of dollars have passed through my hands, we're currently only one dollar off: a miracle!

I have been so inspired by some of the amazing Ugandans we have met. More stories to come, but in the mean time, check out the trip blog. Love you all!

An All-American Week

The best thing about spending time with my brother Jeffrey is that we laugh at the same things for the same amount of time in the same rhythm. This happened the whole week that I spent visiting him in D.C., and we started noticing that we mostly laughed at things nobody else was laughing about...

Here are a couple of those moments:

When we started singing the National Anthem in church, we realized there was no flag in the room, so we took matters into our own hands (which effectively put us into a giggle fit):

We went to dinner one night at a D.C. exclusive: Denny's. We just wanted some comfort food, but it ended up feeling a lot like this scene from The Santa Clause.

We also discovered an app called Vine, which kept us busy in between the funny moments. (It's definitely worth clicking on that link!)

The rest of the week was purely AMERICAN:

We bonded with Eleanor and Franklin.

We got a special tour of the Capitol building from one of Jeffrey's friends who works there,
and we even got to ride the underground train.

 We went to Mt. Vernon and were inspired by George Washington,
his greatness and his quotes.

We walked around the National Mall on the 4th of July and looked at all the Americans and saw the ginormous American flag that inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. 

And we watched fireworks from the Potomac. 

(Note the Washington Monument behind the scaffold.)

We visited the Naval Academy and saw our Dad's cousin, Marsha,
in Annapolis, Maryland.

 And we went to a Nationals game with our friend Kristen Erekson.

Shasta Part Deux

Some of you may remember the tragic Shasta post from last year, where I spent one of the coldest, most miserable nights of my life.

But this year, on June 22, we made it to the top! This was my fourth Cascade volcano, and my second 14,000 foot peak.

Some trip notes:

Experiencing both the summer solstice and the Supermoon on a mountain at 10,500 feet was magical.

I noticed that there weren't many women on the mountain and that Melissa and I were the only all-women team. That somehow made it even more satisfying when we passed groups of men on their way up or after they had given up and were on their way back down.

The smell of sulfur is so strong on Shasta, and it makes dealing with the altitude even more difficult. It's cool to think about how alive the mountain is and to wonder when it is going to blow again.

I liked the variety of terrain on Shasta: snow fields, narrow canyons, rock fields. And everything was made even more beautiful by the fact that we had the perfect weather window: sunny, no wind, comfortable temp.

Melissa kept telling me that I was stronger and more efficient than when we did Adams and Rainier last year. I give credit to my training with the Mountaineers and my boot camp instructor at the gym.


True confessions: I ate the cold leftovers of my re-hydrated mountain meal for breakfast. Typing that makes me want to gag a little.

I stabbed myself in the thigh with my ice axe while I was glissading down. At first, all I noticed was the small puncture in my pants, and then later I noticed blood and a bruise. We ran into a guy who had completely mashed up his hip with his ice axe and looked like he was on his way to the hospital.

Friday 3 pm - Depart from Bunny Flat trailhead, approx 7,000 ft.
Friday 7 pm - Arrive at Helen Lake and set up camp, approx 10,500 ft.
Saturday 6 am - Depart for summit approach
Saturday 11 am - Summit! 14,179 ft.
Saturday 2 pm - Arrive back at Helen Lake and break down camp
Saturday 6 pm - Back at the trailhead and the cars

 At the trailhead. There she is looming behind us.

 Mt. Shasta's morning shadow.

 It doesn't look steep in this picture, but it is in fact a long steep snow field.

 Through the red rock canyons. I had to duck for a rock fall on the way down. Scary!

 A proud American at the summit.

Summit Crowd.