Wow...

Finally have some time in a real Internet cafe... and the thought of blogging is a bit daunting, to be honest.  This has been an incredible experience... overwhelming in so many ways.  As a professional writer I feel like I need to make a blog post pithy and moving, but I don't have the energy or the perspective on things yet that such a post would require.  Such stupid pressure I put on myself :)

Anyway... where to begin... we have held babies in orphanages, sat in on HIV testing in a remote village (one was positive, all the rest negative), visited a girl who is dying of KS (a form of cancer that directly results from AIDS... a disease which our ER doctor tour guide said he never sees in the US anymore, but which ravages AIDS patients here in Malawi), visited huts in villages where 9 kids live in a space that is about 8 feet x 8 feet and with only one mosquito net and their possessions include a few pots and some clothes... and many more experiences that I still need to process.  We've also seen some beautiful landscapes and took a river boat and saw hippos and elephants.  The terrain ranges from dry desert in the middle of the country to lush green vegetation and tea plantations in the south (we won't see the north on this trip). 

In spite of severe hardship, the people here have the biggest smiles I've ever seen and they use them a lot.  The kids LOVE to have their picture taken, and even more they love to see their pictures in the digital cameras -- they literally shriek with laughter at the sight of themselves and then beg me to take more and look again, take more and look again and tease each other.  As soon as they see my camera I am hijacked into photo duty, and it's so much fun and I feel like I am giving them a moment of pure joy.  We were self-conscious about taking photos at first -- feeling exploitive -- but one man here who runs an orphanage assured us that it is, in fact, our duty to take these photos and tell their stories and show the rest of the world.  So I am coming back with about 1,000 pictures... good thing I got the 8G card :)

We are on the home stretch... we have about 2 days left, then get on the airplane Thursday afternoon for our 34-hour flight home (!).  Once I get back I'll upload some pictures... still can't do it here for some reason.  Although I did manage to check email at one point, using my PHONE if you can believe it, from a place in the mountains where I was able to tap into someone's wifi connection :)

Thanks again for all the messages and well-wishes!  I wish I'd been able to blog more frequently along the way, but in a way it's been nice to be completely disconnected from "real life" for a time.  I have truly been able to be here, which was the whole point in the first place.  :)  So it's all good. 

I look forward to boring you all with my stories very soon!!! :):) 

--Kim