Hi..my name is Marianne...and I'm a Travel Addict

So...just a week or so after I got back from Africa, I decided to go to Las Vegas. They were holding a New Media Expo and I was encouraged to go from one of my professors. It was a fun time and I learned a lot. It was a quick trip though and I don't think I had quite adjusted from being back from Namibia.

A week after Vegas, I flew out to Washington, D.C. with my mom to see my brother Kyle graduate as a LPN in the army. It was my first time to D.C., and it was awesome. Another quick trip, but we saw quite a few things while we were there. We made sure to see the LDS temple while we there. Mom had lived out there when it was dedicated and it was her first time back since then. It was a pretty cool thing for both of us.

We saw a few of the other sites quickly one day. We saw the Jefferson Memorial, the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Memorial. The picture below is one I've entitled: Tall, Taller, and Tallest. Appropriate, don't you think? ;)

Here's my brother Kyle and his wife, EvaLyn at his graduation. Pretty attractive couple I think. :)

Last Week in Namibia

This is a bit late coming, but I wanted to make sure I documented my last week in Namibia. It went by so fast and things have been so crazy since. Mainly we got everything ready for us to leave with the students at the Poly and then we also delivered the stuff we brought from home. We had two pallets of shoes, clothes, sanitary kits, school supplies, books, etc. that were donated from the good folks at home. We took one day and just spent delivering goodies. It felt like Christmas to us and to those we were bringing gifts too!

The picture above is of a little girl at the first primary school we went to. It was called Dinosaur land and it had 144 kids and 3 teachers. It was pretty hard to take in, but these women are phenomenal. They are guardian angels to these kids.

They sang us some of their favorite songs and were so excited to see us! Wonderful kids!

There were three rooms and in one of the rooms was where the babies were. They were about 9 months to 2 years old. This little girl was face down and crying on the floor when I walked by. I grabbed her and had her on my lap. Both of us weren't quite sure what to think of each other. She was a cutie though!

This was at the Center that MaryBeth Gallagher runs. She is a saint and has been in Namibia for 3 years working with these people. She set up this center for the kids to come and get food and to continue learning. She makes games out of "rubbish" and teaches other teachers how to do the same. Above is a picture of two brothers sharing their food. The bigger one ate all of his and the smaller one is sharing.

Brittney and I found a couple of "shadows". They loved hugs and we were sure to give them plenty! They loved to feel my hair, so I would let them play with it.

This is Patricia. She was one of my favorites!

One of the books that was donated was a pop-up book. This is me reading them a story. They were fascinated by the "pop up" part!

This was one of our last stops. This lady, we called her Oma (means grandmother), had an orphanage and also a primary school. Her two daughters helped her run it. There was so much love in this place and you could see the difference in the kids! They were very well behaved! This is them waving goodbye after we came for a visit. We left them with a lot of clothes and stuffed animals.

The Rector had us all over to the Hotel School for dinner. It was fun to get all of the Poly students and UVU students together one last time!