The past three months living in Ethiopia have been nothing less than amazing. While I was reminiscing on my time here in Africa, I decided to make a list of a few things I never want to forget.

• African children belly-laughing at Kung Fu Panda
• The African sunrise/sunset
• Orthodox priests chanting at 5am
• Cutting grass in the fields
• The Christmas Eve stars
• African church (these services are long and Spirit-filled)
• That time a badger basically attacked my team during manual labor
• Singing at the top of our lungs to Chicken Fried//Zac Brown Band while washing dishes
• When a street kids grabs your hand while walking to the market
• The 45 minute walk to the HOPEthiopia Reforestation site
• Binge watching all the Marvel movies on off days
• Coffee and Bible reading on the couch
• When I slept beside Jaynna and she steamrolled me to go pee at 3am
• 6am runs in the compound
• Our kitchen ladies, Hildana and Zanet
• Coffee ceremonies in the children’s village
• Elena getting healed of her gluten intolerance
• Stretching for the splits (pictures to come)
• Stopping the van to let a herd of camels cross the road
• Eating Injera
• Getting lice for the first time (and having to keep coconut oil in my hair for a week)*side note: I used to be terrified of getting lice, and now I would take all the lice in the world if I could cuddle an African kid one last time

• Making pancakes with the kitchen ladies
• The walk to the guesthouse every morning
• Doing laundry by hand
• Movie nights with the kids
• All the love notes Daawit gave me
• The cram-packed van ride to Addis Ababa to submit financial reports
• Mange (one of our local friends who works with HOPEthiopia) saying the word “boujee”
• The beautiful mountains that surround the compound
• How the Lord bestowed His love on me in totally new ways

I could go on and on about how much I love Africa and the people here, but my list would take forever to read. I am definitely sad to be leaving this beautiful place that I have called home for the past three months, but I know the Lord has so much greater things in store for both Nicaragua and Costa Rica.