A Fun Surprise!

We will be with 40 people from all over the U.S. for this trip. As we were looking through who would be with us, we noticed there was a couple from Gig Harbor! How cool that out of all the places in the U.S. there is another couple from Gig Harbor! My mom actually had coffee with them today and found that they were very nice.

Zulpha!

This is Zulpha, our sponsored child!

The Schedule

This is a little summary of what the schedule will look like for our trip:

• We will arrive in New York on March 4th. We'll spend a few days there and do some fun activities, including an Asian food tour.
• On Saturday, March 8th, we will fly in to Amsterdam, Holland.  It will take about 7 1/2 hours to get there.  We will arrive on the 9th.
• From Amsterdam, we will then have an 8 1/2 hour flight to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
• Each morning in Tanzania we will have a time for devotion and prayer.
• On March 10th we will get an overview of Compassion's child development program in Tanzania. There will be a few children from that program to greet us.
• On March 11th we will divide into our family groups (a small group of about 6-7 people), meet a child from Compassion's program, visit his/her home, and meet his/her family. (According to Compassion, this is always one of the highlights of the trip because we start to gain a deeper understanding of life in Tanzania.)
• On March 12th we will divide into two groups and visit the child development centers again and interact with some of the children (not our sponsored children though).
• On March 13th we will all visit the Child Survival Program. Then we will divide into our family groups and see some more homes.
• On March 14th the focus will be on learning about Compassion’s global reference curriculum and how Tanzania has contextualized and enhanced it for maximum impact in their culture.
• On March 15th we will experience a typical student center day and interact with about 250 beautiful Tanzanian children. We will be putting on a Vacation Bible School for the children including crafts, games, worship, and Bible-lessons. (I am hoping to be in the group that is doing the Bible-lessons/skits)
• March 16th is a safari day! We will be going to Tarangire National Park where there are over 300 different species of wildlife. Here is the website about Tarangire National Park:  http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.html
• March 17th is child/sponsor fun day! This is the day we will be able to meet our sponsored child, Zulpha! We will be able to talk with her and do some fun activities such as swimming, crafts, soccer, or other fun sports. (This is the last actual day of doing activities in Tanzania)
• We will depart to Amsterdam late at night on March 18th. The flight will be overnight, so I'm going to be very tired!
• We will arrive in Amsterdam on March 19th, fly to New York, then go back home. :)

Zulpha

Zulpha is our sponsored child! My family has been sponsoring her for about five years. When we were selecting who our sponsored child was going to be, I was about seven years old. I wanted to find a girl around the same age as me. I scrolled through tons of pictures of seven year old girls, and once I saw Zulpha's picture, I knew she was the one I wanted to sponsor. Zulpha and I like to exchange letters with each other. Each letter from her includes an encouraging Bible verse and a pretty drawing of a flower or an animal. On this trip I will be able to meet her! I am beyond excited about this.