Well, I’ve been waiting for awhile to be writing those words …and today I’m 6000 miles closer to my dream.

Sarah & David, out tramping.

Since Friday night, I’ve been in sunny England (really! it is!) visiting my beautiful friend Sarah, with whom I first traveled to Africa in 1989. Back then, we had a crazy trip running around Kenya, going on do-it-yourself safari (highly unrecommended) and getting robbed — and it’s unbelievable to think that we’re both now married for years, I have a 20-year old daughter, and she has the brilliant Freya, off to college next year, and my glorious goddaughter Lottie.

The incomparable Miss Lottie.

Sarah & I haven’t seen each other for five years but we’re sisters under the skin, and it’s heavenly sitting around laughing with her again.  But I’m leaving tonight for Entebbe, traveling through Ethiopia, and then I’m taking an 8-hour ride down to Nyaka AIDS Orphans School in the far southwest of Uganda.

I wrote about Nyaka on September 20th on my blog, and I met Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, the founder of the school, last week when he came to speak at Oglethorpe University. It made me quite wild to get over here and see everything for myself.

From the British countryside...

But sitting in Sarah’s cozy kitchen eating a lovely meal, I can scarcely believe that in 12 hours I’ll be in Africa. I’m a tiny bit scared and a huge bit excited. Scared that maybe the poverty will be overwhelming and I won’t like the food (Okay, I’m shallow.) And hugely excited to meet the children of Nyaka.

...to the Pearl of Africa!

If I can get on the internet, I’ll be blogging like crazy — and taking about a million photos with my new camera. I already had a Mac power cord collapse that completely shut down my computer and freaked me out but I think I’m back in the saddle. Stay tuned… it’s going to be amazing!