Weekend Visitors

Joe and I were very lucky to host some of our favorite friends this weekend. The last time we saw them was when we journeyed to Africa for their wedding almost exactly one year ago. The trip was amazing. We traveled to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and then throughout the country. Our favorite part was visiting the home of our friends in the Southern Highlands. A lush green area full of tea fields, monkeys and one of the areas highest HIV infection rates in the world. Our friends work with the local people, an orphanage and a local hospital. It changed my life to see how they were changing the lives of the people around them every day.

The above photo is some of the children who live at the orphanage our friends are responsible for. I love this photo. I took over 2,000 photos on the trip, and I think this is my favorite. We watched this couple get married last year on an island off the coast of Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Due to a last minute complication, Joe actually officiated the wedding! Of course, it was not legit until they got the necessary paperwork filled out in their home village.

Well, this blog was not meant to be about our trip to Africa, but instead about the wonderful visit we had with our friends Jenny and Geoff this weekend. Just one year after the wedding, they returned to America. They came to our house in Rochester with 5 week old daughter Evangeline Twilumba in tow.  Their little family was such a great sight. They are the most laid back, chill, cool parents I've ever seen. In turn, they seem to have produced the most laid back, chill baby ever! In a few weeks, they will be returning, with baby, to Africa. It is fascinating to look into that baby's eyes and imagine the extraordinary live she has is front of her.  She will no doubt grow up speaking both English and Swahili. She will eat fruits and vegetables grown within miles of her house. She will, hopefully, have a monkey as a pet, and most interesting of all, she will have parents who set an extraordinary example of what it means to be citizens of the world. She will know no less than what it means to give back and serve every day of her life.

To see more about what Jenny and Geoff do in Tanzania, and learn how you can help, check out their NGO's website - http://www.mufindiorphans.com, or find Foxes' NGO on Facebook.