Somehow, after all of that, I had made the flight.

Whereas I could have just as easily used that line after successfully going through security at an airport in the United States, I knew that the events of February 1, 2008 made the utterance a bit harder earned.  

If you plan a unique way to tour Germany and you happen to be a music fanatic, then Hamburg would be one ideal destination you can go to. More than the metropolitan tours and the harbour excursions, one nostalgic activity that you can do in the second largest city of Germany is to tour Reeperbahn in St.Pauli. Why so? The place just so happens to be the district where the iconic Fab Four, The Beatles, started their career which led them to reform the music industry as we know it today. 

The shop is like any other souvenir hut – overcrowded with cheap, dusty merchandise.  I pick up a postcard.  Idyllic shots of white-sand beaches and a boat painted with Rastafarian colors.  "Jamaica", I read, "no problem."  My friends and I flock to the checkout with our purchases, only dimly aware of the irony they represent.  Instead of drinking rum in our new shot glasses or smoking ganja in Bob Marley T-shirts, we are on a church trip in Kingston, a city with a reputation for crime and violence.

I was 5 when I first showed an interest in wildlife, so my parents tell me.  I adored watching ants on the steps to our back door, searching for the toad in the leaves blown into the corner of the coal house and watching for grass snakes coiled up in the bottom of the hedges in our orchard.  I adored the nature programs on TV, especially Private Lives and Look! I was fascinated with the wildlife of the Serengeti, Aldabra, Sumatra and the Indian jungles. Most of all, I loved the wild animals and landscapes of Africa.

As usual, on this morning, I was woken up by the sound of roosters, hollering their annoyance at the rising of the sun. However, I think I just was adjusting, as I was able to go back to sleep instead of plotting their deaths. I felt pretty rested, considering the tone of our last few days.

We had been on Safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park! Though an unexpected trip, it was an incredible one… truly a rare and amazing opportunity. My whole life I have dreamed of going on Safari – yet this trip was to be dedicated to the farm we had helped to build, so I didn’t allow myself to hope for it. Luckily, our new friends Kyle and Jessie were planning on going, and were gracious enough to envelope us into their plans. I liked them more and more as we got to know them!

We took an old rickety van with a grumpy back bumper that rattled for the eight hour ride to the park. The poverty there was astounding. There were children in tattered clothes, running around in the dirt and laughing. There were women standing in doorways, washing clothing in buckets, and tending to other chores like food and babies. We drove past so many villagers swinging a single garden hoe in endless rows of crops, heads heavy laden with goods, or manning a shack of vegetables, hoping for a sale.