So today is 38 days till my big adventure. I have been counting the days and updating
everyone regularly, but only recently has it started to become a reality. When
I found out on the 1st July it was so real, but having to wait so long has
caused me to get caught up with work and other things. I have had so many
people in the past few days ask how many days to go and ask me how I feel about
it, that I got really emotional on Sunday afternoon.
When I say
emotional it involves both good and bad emotions. I keep looking at posts by Mercy
Ships and am so excited to be a part of the life change for many of the
patients, while I am there. From the pictures I have seen the island of
Madagascar is possibly one of the most beautiful islands to visit and somewhere
that I have been wanting to travel to. I can't wait to go exploring and meet
the local people when I have breaks. There is something about going to places
where people have so little yet they are so content with what they have and
still have so much joy. I look forward to this trip for how it is going to
change my life. It is a little bit daunting going by myself without knowing a
soul on the ship, but I am keen to “start afresh” meeting new people and enjoy getting
to know them.
I don't
know if you can call them bad emotions I think it is just my inner self having
a mini freak out. My family is my everything and have been geographically close
and there for me throughout my life; so it is going to be tough not being able
to have them within easy reach. It will also be a good thing, as I will have to
100% fend for myself and I am sure I will grow because of it. I also started to
think about all the friendships I have made this year and even though its only
a short 3 months, you still miss out on peoples' lives. On the ship I do have access
to WiFi internet, but because of my busy schedule I won't have much time to
communicate with everyone back home. I do hope that I will be able to blog
often, in order to update everyone on my time and the experiences I am
having.
This trip
has come at the perfect time in my life and I truly believe God is involved in
everything that has happened this far and will be with me throughout. He put Philippians
4 vs 13 on my heart at the moment which says "I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me". Although I am a strong cookie and determined
to make the most of this, this scripture will become even more real to me
during this adventure.
I am still needing funding for my trip especially for my account on the ship. Should you be interested in sponsoring me please go onto my mercy ships account page http://mercyships-us.donorpages.com/crewmates/KayleeWills.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and please respond in the comments section should you want to chat to me or ask me any questions :)
We going to miss you big time but we are so excited for this adventure before you
ReplyDeleteWe going to miss you big time but we are so excited for this adventure before you
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI've been in Madagascar for 6 weeks now and it's indeed a beautiful country. I'll be joining the ship this coming Sunday, the first of November. Antananarivo is a city like any other city and you need to be careful here. I don't know what's your arrangements with the ship and if they will be meeting you at the airport, but without the help of the oak who hosted me I would be lost here. I'm also from South Africa and I'm happy to help if you have any questions. Get ready to buy a kilogram strawberries for R20, red mangos the size of your head and "rys en vleis" on every corner. You're going to have a blast.
Cheers
Douw-Steyn
Thanks so much. Your reply has gotten me even more excited now. Ya I have arranged to be picked up at the airport and everything. Let me know how the trip goes to the ship. What will you be doing on the ship? Im glad it won't be such a shock since we come from sa. So excited for the food. Where did you stay? Im there for a few days at the end of my stay in tana so will do some exploring.
DeleteKayls
I couchsurfed in Tana the past two weeks and for my last week I'm staying in the Lumer Hostel. It's really nice, for about R90 a bed. I'm taking the bus on Saturday to Toamasina, boarding on Sunday.
DeleteThere's isn't much to do here except for walking through the city and eating-haha. Lots of people and taxies. They stole my cellphone out of my pocket during the day, so I prefer to stay off the streets or walk around with nothing on me. But ya, nothing spectacular about the town. I only stayed here to get all my vaccines, visa extended and to wait to get on the ship.
I'll be a deckhand. I wanna stay on the ship until she goes back to Durban next year, but we'll see how it goes. I'm also very excited.
Take care