Home Sweet Home...

Wow....so much for blogging while in Africa. Ha ha...sorry for those of you that actually wanted to read this. The net was super slow there, so I only ever had time to write/read a few e-mails. Oh brother.

So, where to start? After huge screwups in our flights home and almost being stuck in the London airport for a day, I made it home!!! :) I got off my flight to Edmonton, walked down the escalator, and there was my family and Kaleb! I freaked out. I could NOT believe it!!! So we all hugged and said hi etc...and then we had to leave. It was so fast. It was SO wierd to go somewhere without the team. I actually really miss them all. :) I've been with the team everyday for five weeks, and now it's over, and it's so weird. I don't know how to describe it. I'm still processing through everything. Sometimes I can hardly believe I was in Africa 5 days ago.

I hated leaving. Wow, I bawled!!!!! I didn't think I would, but when the time came I knew I would HATE leaving. I was really sick the three days before we left and sort of on the day we left, and Brima took such good care of me. I love that guy. Wow...I mostly hated leaving him there. SO MUCH. He gave me a million hugs that day and he cried when we left. Wow, what a great guy.

I guess I should explain who Brima is. :) First of all, our missionary, David Tanner, was just freaking AMAZING!!!! He's such a sweet man, and he protected all us girls like his own daughters. He has 2 daughters around my age, so I think we all hold a special place in his heart. Wow, I love him so much. It was really hard to leave him, too. But he actually might be coming up here for Missions Conference in the fall anyway. Hopefully. :)

Anyway, Brima is basically David's right-hand-man. He's from Sierra Leone, but he's been trying to get out of the country for a few years. He really wants to come to Bible school in Canada, and of course I told him to come to PRBI. :) He said he would if he could get a visa and the money. So if you ever think of him, PRAY for him. It would be so amazing for him to come here, and he would do so well. Oh, it breaks my heart that he can't come right now.

Yeah, he was great, and I miss him TONS AND TONS....him and the other people we met there. Buel also wants to come to school, and Aloosan, Yusif, Mohamed, Kadi, Sylvia, Stella, and David Brooks all helped us out while we were there. Mohamed was our driver, and he was just TOO cute. Wow, he's awesome. Sylvia was just a sweetie, a sweetie with major attitude, ho man. I love her. And Buel, oh what a guy. He just LOVES music, we sang lots. :) Kerri and I taught him a song and he caught on SO fast. I wrote it out for him and he carried it around in his pocket everyday. He would whip it out and randomly start singing it, always asking me if that was right. :) He said, "Oh yes, this is superb." He says that alot.

Oh my gosh...there's so much to tell. I'll have to do this in like, installments or something. :)

One thing I have to write is that God was SO evident while I was there. He is now, but it's somehow different when you're in a different country and culture. He taught me SO much, depsite my stubbornness and extremely hard heart. He is so patient. I would have given up on me a long time ago. :) I seem to always be learning about some area in my life that I am not trusting God in. TRUST TRUST TRUST,......it's always trust. I feel like I've been learning about trust over and over, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be like that for a very long time yet. But God is faithful, he will not abandon the works of his hands.

So....yeah....There's 50 million other things to write yet, but I'll save it. :) Basically, I was SO excited to be home, but I hated leaving. Everything was such a paradox. Craziness. I feel really different, yet the same. Like, it wasn't weird to be in my room or see some home friends or anything, but I feel....different. I'll figure it out eventually. Thankfully I have 3 weeks (ish) til camp.....which FREAKS the stink out of me....but that will give me time to process everything and get everything done. I have alot to do. :)

I'll be on here again soon, and I can e-mail regularily now, so keep in touch. :) The adventures of Caitlin continue even at home, I'll keep you posted. :)

*Yeama Catherine Wilson :) (my African name :)

"Kushea white girl!"

Ha ha...I'm in AFRICA. holy crikey!!! I can hardly believe it. Ok, so for those of you who think it's hot in Alberta at about 24 degrees: FORGET IT!!! You have NOT experienced hot until you go to africa. :) I love it. I'm sleeping under mosquito net...which is awesome, and we're staying above a highschool. This morning Kerri, Myr and I woke up to African schoolkids singing RIGHT outside our window. Kerri spazzed...she was SO excited. A school girl named Memunatu (Meh-moo-nat-soo) gave me a letter today telling me how much she loved me and thought I was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. :) it was so cute. She wants my e-mail andfor me to write her letters. :) We have 5 (i think) nationals helping us while we're here. All guys...really really nice. Buel helped us learn some common phrases and such. The kids just LOVE us here. And so do some of the men. Ha ha..Myranda and I got told today when we were stuck in traffic that we are "very nice to look". This guy was very adament that he loved Myr "with a great love". He said we were "interestable." HA HA!!! :) So funny. Brihma keeps cheking up on me...he's fun. ANYWAY...I really should go. This might get too long for this computer to handle. I don't have easy acess to internet...so my blogs will probably be few. I miss you all. Pray for us. :) We start VBS next weeek I think, and we travel to "the provinces" probably next wednesday. BUMPY ROADS!!! :) WOO HOO!!!

*Caitlin "Kate-trin" as the boys at our house say. :)