News from the Rukwa Valley:

Howdy howdy:)

yaaayyy! I survived camp in Tanzania!!! barley, but i did it. lol no more ugali… no more sleeping on the ground...ahhh such a relief to be able to come home and not have to prep for anything. lol its kinda weird how you can feel homesick for somewhere thats not even your real home...its weird but its so good to be back! and not only to be back but to come back to mama Stewadi greeting us at the door and with some snickerdoodle cookies and hot lunch on the table and a hot shower!!! Its amazing :) well it ended up taking about two hours and 15 mins to get to the Rukwa Valley. its so amazingly cool down there! I love it! its really hot though...and this is there cool season lol it was well in the 90s id guess and then at night it was perfect, like 70 ish everyone else thought it got chilly but I thought it was good lol sorry no scorpions:( bummer, I know. I wanted to see one. the Bentons (some missionaries) have a monkey and I held it lol it was cute...but we can pretend that it was a wild one and it would make the story cooler lol ...no one will know the difference... but anyway...I still was sick all week:( that made it a little harder cause I was tired and I couldn’t eat anything there but other than that it went really well. We were just a hop skip and a jump from Ted’s so I ate stuff from his house like bread and that kinda stuff. it seemed like breadish things didnt bother me...he made us breakfast every morning before camp and that was really nice, mostly eggs and fresh fruit but one morning we had coffee cake and cinnamon rolls!! I thought I would lose weight here but I wont be surprised if I gain some lol well maybe not gain any but I will definitely be the same. No skinnier:( although, I did feel a bump kinda under my ribs on the left so I felt on the right to see if it was supposed to be there or not and there was one there too...I think its my abs cause I can flex it!! how cool is that! the bottom ones are still being protected, but its a start none the less lol anywho, they make their milk by mixing the powder with water and I cant eat anything with milk in it, it makes me sick. so I couldnt eat the coffee cake cause it had lots of milk in it. I ate some today anyway cause it looked so good and it didnt bother me too bad...it was well worth it lol. Its Sat. at 5:02 pm by the way and theres a big beetle on the floor on his back and its tryin to flip over, its funny lol ...sorry I almost forgot, there was about 45 campers which is less than the others , but its allot for the Valley and more than they’ve ever had! So thats good. I never herd number of who got saved... I did get to see a couple Wakami tribe people they are kin to the Masai. I didnt get there pic cause we were driving but I saw them! they are really cool lookin! and people are taller in the Valley cause those tribe people are tall for some reason... oh and by the way, thanks for the racing analogy dad:) lol I think at this piont I just wanna get home just so I can show you and tell you everything, but im really really sad that we are leaving soon. I do wanna stay longer lol I told Brook id like to visit a couple weeks when shes not busy just to hang out and relax and have fun and not be so busy. Not that this wasnt fun, but you know what I mean. So I was kinda bumbed that I didnt get to see all of Ted’s set up, which I figured we wouldnt have time to, but he said Id just have to come back to visit lol but he talked allot about it so I got that info I just didnt get to see it, except for the garden thats around the church. he helped them with that and they sell the produce to profit the church. so thats pretty cool. I got a video walking through it. ...ok, so im back, I had a small encounter with siafu aka: army ants, they bite and they hurt and they crawl up your pants and you dont know it lol well that was a fun experience at least lol there was only a couple so it wasnt bad, but usually you get covered with em. we went outside real quick and I felt it bite my ankle and then I felt one bite my side so I came inside so I could take my cloths off to get em out lol there was only 3. Anyway… lol we was gonna do somethin for the 4th here with Caraways and Shermans, but that container is finally supposed to get to town tonight so they all are going up there to unload everything, and this is the container that got lost that we all prayed about...its just now getting here lol and a bunch of stuff got stolen... so we arent doing anything, but the US embassy in all the different countries do usually do a celebration Brook said. but yeah happy belated 4th!! I can try to send stuff but I cant promise anything, but ill at least bring some home...and a rock for Joshy:) and me too cause I want one. lol and I cant wait to go to Dar cause we can get some pretty sweet stuff and Im gonna get yall hooked up...youll like this dad, but im not gonna tell you, its a surprise:) we wont have time to go to the orphanage:( but we are doin the safari:) yay!! I cant wait, im so excited!! Hopefully an elephant doesnt sit on the car. lol I definitely want to come back, I cant see myself being able to go the rest of my life without coming back. lol and you guys have to come sometime too, its so amazing! you’d love it. Im so glad you are gettin lots of berries!! I cant wait for some jelly:) I love fire works! aww I miss Keith and Alison...they are so fun! I love them:) Mom, you need to pick up your typing skills lol jk I type slow but it doesnt take me hours lol well I cant say much cause its 7:21 now lol we just got done with our devotions and now we are gonna eat some tuna fish sandwiches and watch a movie:) yay! ok we got new toilet paper from town and it is so soft! the other stuff was scratchy and dumb, lol but anyway, Ill talk to you guys later and I miss you and love you bunches and bunches!! :) oh and just a side note: they put 7 kilos of sugar in 10gallons of chai!! thats like 15 pounds!! how crazy is that! Its really good though...obviously. lol but yeah, this has been a really random and jumbled up message...but its still a message and your gonna like it. lol Love you:)