Infiltrating Gateway.....

Been here almost two weeks now, and things are going wonderfully! There is this lovely pear tree here on the property, and I've become very well acquainted with it; a little too well today when I scraped my knee while almost falling out of it. The food here is wonderful, but I think they are seriously over estimating the amount of calories we burn while sitting in class.
This week I have been learning more about spiritual warfare and having a real relationship with God. It sure is eye-opening. We are all grouped in groups of five at each table during class, but my table is probably the craziest. Next week the table assignments will be switched around, so I'll get a whole new group of people to harrass; can't wait!
There is a lovely swimming pool here, I've gotten in it twice, and froze both times. I'll be putting in a petition for a jaccuzzi. At the end of the first week (IMS) several of us got together and played some basketball. Very rousing game indeed, I tripped over the ball, got sat on, and was head-butted in the nose; I can now be located lounging on the local couch.
Went on a tour of the various offices and buildings here on the MS campus. There is a small working farm here, but I have discovered after many inquisitions that there are no milkable cows or goats. Which is a real bummer, 'cause I was really wanting to learn to milk one. But, we are going to the Dominican Republic in a few weeks, and there is a picture of a cow on the hand-drawn map of where we will be, so maybe I can learn there. Hope springs eternal! Although I was terrible despondent about the lack of milkable creatures, they do have some lovely chickens here and I got to gather some eggs. It was really fun, and the eggs were still warm from the chicken when I got then. They were also slightly sticky feeling, but I'm not going to dwell on why that might be.
Well, time to sign off for now 'cause our presence is required at a BBQ (which unfortunitely will not involve NC BBQ); but should be fun anyway!

Roaming the Southeast

Howdy all y'all from Texas! I have decided to try my hand at blogging, so we shall see how this goes. I arrived at the IOC (International Operations Center) for Mercy Ships, located in Garden Valley, TX, Monday. As some of y'all already know, I was able to meet up with three other fine young ladies that I had met on the ship earlier this year. We had a very relaxing, exciting and fun journey through some of the southeastern states.

A brief synopsis of our trip goes like this: leave from my home town of Clinton, NC, stop to check out some cotton in the field; stop by the South of the Border and go up in Pedro's sombrero; stop by a bowling alley in goergia to meet Alainie's friend and get the key to the friend's parent's house where we would stay that night; get up the next morning (Saturday) and go to the local Waffle House; stop in Montgomery, AL to tour the church where Martin Luther King, Jr was pastor, and the Rosa Parks Museum; stop in Biloxi, MS and camp in an RV park that ended up being about 100 yds from some railroad tracks (we now know that four trains come through each night); continue to New Orleans, LA, and go to the French Quarter where we get caught in a torrential downpour; then drive up towards Alexandria, LA and try to find the Kisatchie National Forrest, drive around for an hour without success, so we take an exit that said 'camping at Lake Cotile', which, it turns out, was in the Kisatchie National forest; get up Monday morning and finish driving to the IOC.

Well, that's all folks! (for now)
I'll try and get some pics up soon.