Africa Inspired Decoration

I have lived in my apartment for 8 months and finally just got around to putting up some pictures in my bedroom. (Sad thing is I'm moving out in a month and subleasing for the summer so I only will enjoy them for a month or two).

Most of my decorations are from the trip. Some are pictures:

My favorite though is a picture I finally got around to painting:

"I am only one but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can."
-Helen Keller

Thankful for 2008

I've tried a few different times to create a list of memories from 2008 that I am thankful for, and each time I do, I get overwhelmed. There are so many things I'm grateful for and so many things that have happened. I seem to be at a point in life where things are constantly changing and sometimes it's hard for me to even keep up.

But, to keep on theme with this blog, I've realized that I am most thankful for my journey to Africa. I remember reading before our trip from a book "assigned" to us by Geoffrey, the team leader. There was a sentence that stuck out to me, and to paraphrase from memory, it said "the journey from head to heart was much farther than the journey from the US to Africa"

How incredibly true that sentence rings true. It was, and still is, a journey from what I think I know, to what only the heart can truly know and experience.

I am so thankful for all the people who opened their lives to me during this trip - my teammates, Barrett and Rachel, Surafel, but most importantly the Ethiopians I met. When I look back on 2008, the year of 20-yr old Melissa, I think those are the faces and the memories that will stick out the most.

What a year!