This is a picture from the summer of 2003. I spent the summer after my freshman year of college in Burkina Faso, West Africa. That was the sickest two months of my life; looking back I would like to think it was the Celiacs'. It was the most painful months of my life physically: living in village huts, sleeping on the ground, walking miles every day in painful heat, being sick the entire time I was there and topping it all off with Malaria to finish up my trip 30 lbs lighter than when I left (thanks to my freshman year of college which gave me something to loose). Although it was the most challenging time of my life physically, I look back on those two months with joy and fond memories. It was the worst and best two months of my life.
It was the first time I had ever spent more than two weeks out of the country, and it confirmed for me my desire to live overseas permanently one day. I am pretty sure I was the tallest, whitest girl in the entire country. I got at least one marriage proposal every day I was there, but thankfully I held out for Andrew :) Even to this day, a certain breeze or a random building will take me back to those two months in West Africa. When Andrew and I decided to head out overseas and were thinking of where we would go, West Africa came up frequently in my thoughts. It was a tough place to live, but it will always hold a special place in my heart.
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