Even more joy than before (Email to parents)

(a picture of the village I visited today - about an hour hike down from the road)

Back from the village- Monday, 4pm. All went well….well, pretty well. I have some scratches on my arms from cutting grass, some new mosquito bites, some new little red dots on my body, I think from fleas in the night. My back is a little more sore than before from sleeping on a wooden bed- with nothing but a thin sheet under me. My hair stuck together with little grass pieces, and thorn thistles from carrying a huge bundle of grass on my head. My feet black and brown from walking though dust, mud, sand up from the river back to the village. Imagine carrying a huge bundle of grass on your head, with a sharp knife tucked into your scarf that is tied aroudn your waist (worn only like that in the field when working). My finer is cut slightly from the knife (nothing major). My bladder a little more free to do what it wants- I did go in the field once, and twice in this really dark, damp bathroom they have. I think people there actually prefer the grass as opposed to there- I would too!

BUT, More than all that, I have more photos, more experience, more testing results, more friends, more desire to go back, and more joy to be here among these people here, than I did before.

When can you call? Today would be good...Love you, and miss you a lot.

~ Elizabeth