A Little (Photographic) Taste of Coady

I'm blessing you with a few of the pictures I've been taking madly over the past few weeks... While the classes leave a bit to be desired, the experience has been so amazing. One of the past interns had told me before coming that over the four weeks of orientation, the other interns would start to feel like family. At the time, I thought she was exaggerating- I don't tend to get very close to people very easily, so I really didn't consider the very real possibility of forming strong friendships with people I would only be around for a short while. I've surprised myself though, and three weeks into this, I find it so hard to believe I didn't know anyone a month ago, and that I won't be seeing the vast majority of these people until February (with the exception of the members of Team Rwanda, with whom I will likely be living with in Kigali). The diploma participants are also fantastic- I am constantly in awe of how much people put into their work, and the vast majority of my learning during orientation has been through them rather than through the classes we take. Above is a picture of Mike, one of the interns, with a group of the Coady students- I'll admit to not knowing names for everyone so instead, nationalities- Malawi, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Ethiopia, Ghana (I think) and Zambia in the back. We've got participants from all over- an American, some from South America and the Caribbean, many from all over Africa, and quite a few from India (all nuns and priests), Nepal and Bangladesh. It's just incredible.

The picture to the left is a blurred shot of some of the beautiful Tanzanian women dancing at the Welcome Social last week. It was just phenomenal- first the group of Tanzanian women started dancing and within moments, the vast majority of the African students were on their feet. Definitely one of the most memorable moments around here, and I'm hoping for a few more of these in the next week.

Speaking of a week- I'm flying out next Sunday! I'm past the point of stress and well into mellow... Just waiting to go. The past three weeks have been rough but things are now under control- I've gotten accustomed to residence life (although not the food...) and details of my placement are falling into place, although I won't know where I'm living until I get off the plane. Kim, one of our coordinators, is fond of telling us to "trust the process." So trusting I am... Here's hoping!