Matthew 7:16

As I started writing this blog I didn’t know what to call it. It has been a month now, but that’s obvious as I mentioned it in the other blog. So I thought about past week and what I had learned and as I was looking through my notebook of scriptures, I found Matthew 7:16. It says “You can tell what they are by what they do.” That is something that I noticed about the people around me all the time last week and it makes me so happy to be a part of that world. This something that comes from The One that gives you love, peace, understanding, forgiveness and unity. It’s not Earthly and I can feel it, so with a confident heart I can say it’s the Holy Spirit in them that makes them more like Him. So yeah, I can see and say what they are by what they do and be happy to be a witness of all the amazing work my fellow YWAMers will do with their lives in the future.

It’s already the 2nd day of November and it is unbelievable how fast the time has gone by. We had two great speakers from Mombasa last week. The classes were about calling and destiny and I really learned how to listen the voice of God thanks to the quiet times we had. Also the students around me were really encouraging, but Rose, my dear Rose has been a real blessing to me since last week. She is a staff member who I always considered to be really nice as I felt something special about her whenever I saw her, but last week we became extremely close. Somehow it happened so fast and we became so close that a day without seeing her doesn’t feel like a full day anymore. She is just one of those people you feel you have known your whole life and you never get bored of them. So yes, she has been such a blessing and I thank God for bringing her to my life.

Otherwise the whole week went pretty much the same like any other. We had our class in the morning, work-duty after lunch, we played soccer around 4pm (if not then I went running), then dinner and Bible study or class in the evening. I also went to Makutano with Fred on a biki biki( motorcycle) to buy some candies. That’s what we usually do once a week. It is so much fun to be on a motorcycle when everybody is staring at you as you are the only white in the town lol. That’s how the week usually rolls. But…this Friday was totally different. It started with our small groups doing something fun. So my small group with Rose, Fred, Mary, Joseph, Yuma and Anna decided to go to the bush-bush and make a bonfire. So we did! We grilled some Kenyan sausages, ate cupcakes, listened to some good African music and had the coolest morning so far. In the evening we all cooked in the kitchen as we were having a feast at the base. That meant we had chapatti, chicken, rice, potatoes, fruit salad and ice cream for dinner. It was crazy!!!! I haven’t seen so much food since I came here. It was so delicious and I got so full so fast so I decided to save my chicken for Saturday as I knew we will have ugali on that day. We continued our evening with girls’ night in Rose’s room and watched a movie. I don’t think we had ever stayed awake until 12am before. It was really fun and I stayed over for the night. What a great day!

On Saturday we went to a nearby mountain with Dynel, Anna, Tasha and Paul. It was SO warm and I got a nice sunburn, but it was worth it. The view was out of this world and the climbing part was fun itself. After that we went to Makutano and had a burger for lunch. Couldn’t ask for a better Saturday! (Well except this Saturday when we are going swimming).

Also this Sunday the service was short and we got back to the base before lunch. We had a short ministry in a nearby boarding school with really sweet and friendly kids. It was a great experience and I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all of being the only mzungu in our class. Life is really good at the moment, praise the Lord!

(2 Corinthians 3:18b)

Almost a month!

It’s unbelievable that it has been almost a month since I arrived to Kenya and little over 2 months since I left the States. I still can’t believe God took me all the way here from all this luxurious life to the bush-bush somewhere in Africa, but I am not complaining at all, oh no…I couldn’t be happier.


Last week was mad busy and this week seems to be even busier. It looks like it will keep going that way until December and before I know it’s time for the outreach. I am excited and scared at the same time. I know it will be fun, challenging, out of this world experience that will change my life, BUT there’s so much I feel that I need to grow to be ready for that so I really hope there’s enough time. We had a speaker named Ed from UK last week and we learned so much about the Father heart of God. It was such a powerful message and none of us could keep away the tears when it was Ed’s time to leave. He definitely touched my heart and made so many things to meditate and think about over the weekend.

On Saturday our dear staff went out for a retreat. The DTS students were left in the base to look after their kids. There were so many students who wanted to be with the kids, so I used the opportunity to take a nice and relaxing day off. It didn’t start so nicely at all. Somehow I had been stupid enough to save all my dirty clothes to be washed at the same time. So having only one clean pair of outfit I took my huge bag of dirty (it’s literally dirt or dust that is on the clothes) clothes and started doing laundry. It was little before 10am when I started and little before 1pm when I finished. NEVER AGAIN will I do a mistake like that!!! My hands hurt, I was sweaty like crazy and it had taken me 3 precious hours. Yeah, wasn’t really the best morning but…oh well, now I know better. In the afternoon Angela and I decided to make a little trip to Machakos to buy some stuff. We knew it would be kind of an adventure as it was our first time to do it alone without any Kenyans. Two mzungu women in a little town, not easy to be unnoticed, but we were willing to take the risk lol. Leaving out the facts that people were staring at every corner and if not every then every other car honked at us like we were celebrities, it turned out to be quite nice and we were back by dinnertime. As it was Saturday I desperately wanted to stay awake longer that day, but we had a ministry to go on Sunday morning so that’s pretty much how my only free day of the week ended.

Our second big ministry was in a girl’s boarding school close by our base called Shalom High School. There were girls ages 15 to 21 and we were there to spend the day with them worshiping God and sharing about YWAM. The girls had different programs for us, they sang, did drama and danced. We had some songs prepared a well. These girls were fun or what!!! We danced all these crazy African dances after lunch and it was so much fun. I don’t know how, but I am really good at them, so all the girls were amazed as well to see a mzungu dancing like that lol. It was really funny to hear that from them but it made me feel good, because I felt it broke the barrier between us and after that we were able to share more easily. I could have never imagined that God could give me a Holy Spirit of dancing that would really work lol. It was definitely the best ministry so far.

“Home is where God wants you to be.” (John Kisamwa)

Week 2

The second week is already over and what a week it was. I really got touched by God this week and learned a lot about YWAM as an organization. It’s still hard to believe that God has brought me this far and I can’t stop mentioning that I have been in 5 countries on 3 different continents this year, how awesome is that!


Monday started with our first lecture. Our speaker was a sweet lady from Uganda named Margret. I knew the first day that she had something special in her. I could sense the relationship she had with Lord as peace and love shined out of her whatever she said or did. As I learned by the end of the week, I wasn’t wrong.

I also started going jogging again on Monday and did that throughout the week. Laura joined me the first day and it was really nice. The other days I went alone but couple of kids joined me for a while when they saw a mzungu passing by their house. It was really sweet and I talked some Swahili with them, yeah I am doing better every day! It is kind of my favorite part of the day so far. I mean the running part that is. It is so nice and peaceful here surrounded by the beautiful nature and animals. I simply LOVE it! Whenever I get tired of running, I just walk and meditate and trust me, it is impossible to not feel God’s present.

One thing I didn’t love so much this week was doing the laundry. Luckily my dear friend Mary helped me to do it, but woow, I really admire Kenyan women (like Prudence) who except doing their own laundry, also do their husband’s and kids’. What a hard work that is!

We played soccer a lot this week as well. Africa is kind of made for it, I feel. It is so fun, because the ground is full of cow’s poop, so you actually HAVE to dribble between it lol. And they are really good at it as well, Kenyans that is.

On Friday was my sister’s 23rd birthday and I realized that it was the 4th year I hadn’t seen her on her birthday. Pretty crazy and unbelievable, but I guess that’s one of the sacrifices of being world traveler. I did call her and it was so nice to hear her voice :) Friday was a great day and actually I think the best day I have had in Kenya so far. Not only because we had chapati, because we have it on every Friday, but two cool things happened. First, it was Margret’s last teaching day, so she did ministry on each one of us. I think it was the first time for me to be prophesized and it was amazing. I will never forget it. Angela wrote it down for me in my notebook, so that I can always look at it. Lot of people saw the same things happening in my future and felt the same obstacles holding me back. I won’t write about it all as it would be too long, but two things that stood out for me were that :” I’m a temple of Holy Spirit and God has more planned for me than I even desire at this time.” Powerful words from powerful people and I will do my best to protect that treasure He has given me.

Friday night ended with a fun night, but before that I had one-on-one with Eleanor. Eleanor is Joram’s wife and one of our staff members. She is really sweet and friendly but also very beautiful, I mean very beautiful. So we had a great talk with her and I found out a lot about her life. During the time though I kept thinking all the time if I should tell her that I thought she was beautiful. I wasn’t sure because maybe it is weird for Kenyans. So I decided not to. Just after I had decided that, she told me that she thinks I am very beautiful so I couldn’t help myself of bursting out with laughter. Then of course I told her that I just wanted to tell her the same and she started laughing as well. It was really funny! Shortly after that we had our fun night where all of the DTS students and most of the staff members played games and ate some sweets. It was fun indeed and a perfect end for a perfect school week.

On Saturday we had our first ministry in an orphanage called “Springs of Hope”. It was located in a nearby town called Machakos. It was one of the saddest as well of one of the most beautiful days in Kenya so far. There were about 15 toddlers and almost same amount of kids ages 3-6. We divided our DTS group into different little groups and helped out the staff in the orphanage. I was lucky enough to get the group of taking care of the babies. How good it felt to hold these little bodies and give them as much love as I could in these 3 hours we spent there. We played with them, feed them and put them to bed. I got really close to a baby girl who was the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. She seemed to like me a lot as well and I couldn’t help tearing down when she started crying when it was time for me to go. Her name was something similar to Evelyn but not quite the same. I definitely miss her already and can’t get these little eyes of hers out of my mind. I can’t wait for another weekend to go back. Malaika mtogo!

Yesterday was Sunday and we had our first ministry in a church. We( the DTS students) were divided into 5 groups. In my group there were Boniface, Anna and Ben. All of the groups went to different churches and we all had to either sing a song or preach. Anna and I sang, as we weren’t quite ready for preaching yet, so Boniface did that part. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite experience. At first there was about 20min of walking to do to find the right church from among 500 other churches in the same slum. The streets were really dirty and obviously no one had ever seen a white person before. I just kept repeating “missionary stomach, missionary stomach” to myself and kept going. After a while it wasn’t so bad anymore and people actually started smiling back. Little before 10am we finally found the right church and stayed there for the next 4 hours. Yes, 4!!!! I have never been in such a long service and it wasn’t actually finished yet when we left. I don’t know if there was something wrong with me, but after 2 hours in a hot little room I got really restless and hoped to be back home, I mean at the base. Little did I know that we will be back at the base slightly before dinner time. It was so far the longest Sundays ever and I couldn’t have been more mad at myself for not doing my homework on Friday.

Keeta, it was so nice to talk with you!!!! Miss you guys a lot :)

What you are is God’s gift to you. What you do with yourself is your gift to God. ( Danish proverb)

DTS starts, the first week (Oct 4th-8th)

The first week has been out of this world and I can’t thank God enough for bringing me here. How can there be so many cool people in the world!?! Lot of fun things happened this week and it was more like an orientation week to get to know each other. We got or school and work schedule for the next 3 months and had some lectures, but we definitely had more free time then we will have the next coming weeks. Homework is pretty fun though! We have to read two books during the 3 months and do a little conclusion about them and wrote it in our journal. Journals are the coolest! Every Monday we hand them to Joram and other staff members so that they could see how are we doing. In our journals we record what we have learned during the week and little points from the lectures we have heard. We also need to find a scripture from the Bible that really spoke with us that week and then just decorate it. It’s so much fun!!!


My favorite part of the school day is the morning. Right after breakfast at 7:30am we have 1 hour QT(quite time) with the Lord. It means that we can go anywhere with our Bible and be back at the classroom by 8:30am. Our base is huge and there are so many beautiful places to go and sit and have a talk with God. I love it!!! I never had that time back in DC and here it’s on a schedule to do so…how can u not love it 

The beginning of the week went pretty slow. Another thing that we have to do here is work duty and that kind of sucked the first days. Work duty means that every day from 2:30pm until 4:30pm we do some kind of work at the base. It can be anything from cooking dinner, sorting out the beans and rice, cleaning the kitchen, classroom, toilets, planting and taking care of plants, washing dishes or sheets to killing a goat. Yeah, it’s pretty whack!!! Naah, actually it’s nice to get your hands on something, it’s just that I got the cleaning part the first view days and in that African heat I didn’t really like it. But oh well…it’s all good, at least we all work to make our living here better and sometimes it can be really fun as well.

I have learned so much Swahili during the week that I am pretty sure that when I come back I will speak it like old Kenyan. It’s so easy and fun …you better be ready, Charles! What else…oh yeah on Tuesday we went to see the lions that one of our neighbors has here or should I say simbas lol. Somehow it felt different to really see them here in Africa instead of the zoo in DC, it was cool. He also had tons of turtles, so pretty cool farm if I may say so myself.

The same night when we got back to the base I had my first ugali. Baaaahhh!!! I don’t like it at all! It doesn’t taste like anything and is just a white chunky thing looking something like we call “manna” in Estonia. I never liked “manna” either, so it might come from that. Anyways…another stuff that they eat with it is a green thingy called skumawiki or just skuma. It looks little bit like spinach but is more bitter. I kind of liked it…kind of.

On Wednesday on the other hand we have the best stuff to eat in Kenya. Chapati with beans, mmmm. If that’s not straight from the Lord then what is lol. It’s this goodness that looki little bit like tortilla or think pancake but is so much better and goes so good with beans. It really made me happy hehe. Actually from Wednesday everything has gone really fast and been so much fun. On Thursday we had Team Building Day. It basically meant that the whole day we played games, danced, played soccer and learned to know and trust each other. Isn’t that sweet!!! All the people are so fun, I already love them and everybody likes me too, so it’s great!

On Friday we had a little celebration here. Not only because we had finished our first week, but Celia, who is a staff here and working with the orphans, got the first house out of eight that Able and Lora(they are a couple from Netherlands working here to build 8 family homes for poor people and orphans) had finished and was ready now to move in. Celia has 2 biological and 9 adopted children. For that occasion the base had bought two goats to be slaughtered. I heard that it’s a Kenyan tradition, so it wasn’t really anything new, except for mzungus. I promised to myself not to go and watch the killing part, so I sent my friend over to take the pictures and went there after both of the goats were dead. Joram, Fred and Bonfec had this crazy sparkle in their eyes. Who knew that two goats and a knife make Kenyan men happy like a child in a candy store. It was my first time to eat goat meat and I must say it was quite delicious. At least now I really know where the meat comes from…here in Kenya.

On Saturday we went to Nairobi to get the modem for the Internet. Even though there is always lot of people in Nairobi, this Saturday was a mad house as Kenya had a soccer game vs. Uganda. The city was full of people waving Kenyan flags and lot of Ugandans wearing their country colors. It felt like the world cup lol. On the way back home in the little matatu I still wasn’t used to with the left lane traffic. Who knew that Kenyans have their steering-wheel on the right. We couldn’t help us stopping on the road to buy some sugar cane. Oh man, is that stuff good or what!!!! I love it!!!! I remember Juliana telling me about it once or twice back in the States, but I could have never thought that it is sooo delicious.

Yesterday was Sunday and our rule here is to go to a different church every Sunday and by the 4th week find one that we like the most and go and preach there or do a Bible study. So this Sunday was our second time and we decided to go to a church close to our base. It was this church next to the main road to Machakos. It was the longest service I have ever attended (3 hours) and it wasn’t so pleasant for us Westerns as we all have some problems with our stomachs at the moment lol. Anyways…we survived it and the message was really good. Back at the base we did our laundry and played some games. Can’t believe we only have 11 weeks left!



“I want God to make me the person I need to be to live the dream he created me to live” (“The Dream Giver”)


Mungu akubariki!

First weekend in Kenya!

It was little past 8am when I walked out the airplane on Saturday with a big smile on my face and ironically the first thing I saw was a big sign saying: “Smile, you r in Kenya!” Hehe, funny I know. I had seen Kenya only in movies, but it wasn’t so much different I had expected. One thing was sure I had never ever seen so many black people( and I mean black not brown like my friends in the States) looking at me at the same time. Lost like a headless chicken I tried to find my name from some of the signs so many people were holding, but I felt so small and uncomfortable so I went to the information desk. The lady there was really nice and couple minutes later I was already in a car with Peterson, a guy from the base, on my way to YWAM Athi River.


Looking out from the window I couldn’t stop smiling. I really was in KENYA!!!!! All the nature, landscape and people were exactly like I had seen from Google. The sun was shining and the tiredness I had felt an hour ago was suddenly gone, there was so much to see.

When I got to the base there was couple of people there to greet me. Jerome, our base leader, said “karibu”, which in Swahili means “welcome” and led me to my room. There were four of us in the same room the first 5 days: Laura, from the States, Dynell from Canada and Hellen from Kenya, but Johanna, another American came on Thursday night so Laura had to move to the other room with her and Natasha(Canada). The other room next to ours is shared by Angela(USA), Anna(Germany) and Mary(Kenya). In our DTS there are 14 students: 9 girls and 5 guys and of course our wonderful stuff, who are the coolest ever. There’s so many of them and they are all so funny and friendly and…ahhh the best!!! The coolest thing that happened on Saturday was that I saw giraffes the first time in my life and there were five of them. It was amazing. They chilled close to our base and the stuff who knew they are going to be there just took us there without saying a thing and I almost flipped out. A GIRAFF, seriously!!!! Not so cool that I found out the same day were the conditions of washing ourselves and the restroom. Well with the restroom I am actually kind of used to already if not to mention that I avoid going there after 7pm because that’s the time where all the black widows(poisones spiders) are lively around it. But it’s still hard to wake up every day at 6:30am, take your bucket, fill with cold water and go and wash yourself. I guess I am slowly getting used to with it too. Oh at 5:30pm there’s actually possibility to get warm water too, but most of us are too busy at that time to go and wash ourselves. I shall definitely try that out one day though. On Saturday night we went out to a little city close to our base called Machakos. It was the first time I heard the word mzungu that I was expecting to hear already at the airport. People were different, some friendly, some little bit too friendly and I guess some of us kind of scared, but so were we. One was sure everybody was staring at the 2 blondes from Europe and the 6 white girls from the west generally, so we kept close to the 2 Freds from our base who were with us. It was actually pretty nice experience for the first day, we even got a ride in a matatu( cheap little bus). And Kenya it surely was, I already had sunburn the first night.

On Sunday couple of people from our base took us to Nairobi to a local church. It was really small and I’d say African. The worship reminded me little bit African American churches, but the dance was definitely different ( go Charles!). After the service which lasted for almost 3 hours, we went out to a Kenyan restaurant for a lunch. I had my first chapati and it was delicious. I was so surprised that I got a whole meal and a drink with only 250Ksh which is little more than 3USD. And I heard that restaurant was considered as one of the expensive ones. Woow, unbelievable!

Back at the base we just chilled and got to know each other more. We couldn’t have been more excited to find out what other amazing stuff God had for us for the upcoming 20 weeks. Our school started at the next morning, so most of us were in bed by 8:30pm. Even me, who hadn’t gone to bed before 10pm since I was 10, was dead tired and knocked out before 9pm.

Oh here’s my address just in case somebody misses me at Christmas lol.

Kadi Levo, Youth With A Mission, P.O. Box 59443-00200, Nairobi, Kenya



“Great things are what you will accomplish when you put God first and make him owner of all you care about.” (“The Dream Giver”)

Africa...here I come!!!

Before I can start telling all about the coolest week I have had in this beautiful country, I can’t stop mentioning how I got here. So here it goes…


My flight was from Finland on Friday at 12pm. I went to my dad’s for the night as it was easier to get to the airport next morning. The flight to London Heathrow was one of the worst I have had so far. Not only because it was an hour delayed, but the airplane was so small and uncomfortable and hot and there was no free food, so it was definitely the longest 3 hours of my life.

In London I had 7,5 hours to my connection flight to Kenya, so luckily my dear friend Afolabi, who I hadn’t seen since he left the States, came to see me. It was so nice to see him!!! He took me to Picadilly Circus(is that how u write it?) and we looked around a bit. It was hilarious listening people speaking with British accent, I couldn’t help myself cracking up with laughter or should I say laaughter( with British accent lol). I also saw the double-decker buses, black taxes, red phone booths and tried our British McDonald’s, how delightful!

I was just on time to catch my flight and sweaty like crazy for carrying that backpack of mine that weighted like 100kilos. I was so ready to relax and watch at least 3 new movies on the plane, but I guess the British accent was too much for me, because I was knocked out lil after the flight took off. I woke up 2 hours before landing and was able to finish one movie. Soon after, I was in Africa, first time in my life and couldn’t have been more excited.

“Not all those who wander are lost” (J.R.R.Tolkien)

Raili in DC ( last days in USA)

08.20.10- My flight from LA had to be in DC by 12am. My friend Raili was also coming from CA and her flight had to arrive an hour before mine. So we made an agreement that she would wait for me there and if we hadn't found each other by 12.30, she would find a way to call me. Everything seemed going by plan until I got to Atlanta, GA where I had my connection flight. Little did I know that by the time I had used the restrooms there would be crazy thuderstorm outside meaning that all the flights were delayed. Just beautiful!

When I finally got to DC, it was almost 2am. and Raili with her big and heavy luggages was freaking out. I found her close to the metro and told her everything that had happened. We were totally ready to go home. We took the metro and were in Van Ness before 3am. From there we decide to take the cab as neither of us couldn't feel our fingers or arms anymore( The bags were mad heavy!). Unfortunately the taxidriver was a jerk. We had to pay 2 dollars more as we had 3 heavy luggages, well I guess that might have been ok, but when we got to my house and I asked him if he could help us to carry the bags upstairs, he asked us 2 more dollars. I was like seriously?!?! I was tired and pissed already so I yelled at him and said "So you just wanna be a jerk and not help us, huh?" I guess he didn't expect that from me so he started apologizing and carrying the luggages upstairs, lol, what a jerk!

Eventhough Raili and I were both tired we didn't find a reason to go to sleep that night as it was already past 3am and our bus to NYC left at 8am. That meant leaving the house in 3,5 hours, so we took a shower, changed our clothes, ate, talked and got ready for NY.

The whole Saturday we spent in NY. We went for the last shopping in Conway, to the Central Park, of course and to the NBC store at Rockefeller. It was quite nice! The ride back to DC was an adventure itself. Our busdriver was a crazy Jersey lady, who broke the bus right after Lincoln tunnel. After 40minutes of waiting for the new bus, our sweet busdriver wanted to make up the time we lost, so....I couldn't really see outside the window, but everything I felt and heard sounded that she was copying the movie "Speed" lol. Luckily we got back to DC safe and sound, and what can you say, on time as well... :S

08.22.10- On Sunday morning we got ready for church. It was pretty much Raili's first time to go to church, so I was really excited. I was sure she will like it, how couldn't she! The service was really nice and pastor Dave even invited me to stand in front of everybody so that they could pray for me, it was so sweet. Aww, how I miss Christ Church :(

On Sunday evening Raili and I made some Estonian pancakes with ground beef stuffing in Estonian way, yeah! I invited my people from Christ Church over an we had a great night. Mark, Jessica, Chaquita, Charles, Michelle, Paolo, Angela and Raili were all there- it made me so happy :) We even had a skype conversation with Lamont all together! What a sweet last Sunday in America.

08.23.10- It was the last day I would see the Luzzatos and also the first day I had seen them since June. It was soo good to see them and they were clearly happy to see me too. I was amazed how much Maeve spoke already. I had missed them so much and couldn't believe it was the last day. It was so hard to say good-bye, especially when Ruby was crying so much. I love and miss them so much!

Later that night we went to see a movie we thought would be funny "Dinner for Schmucks", but it so wasn't. I was so disappointed, but oh well, at least I had nice time with my friends Raili, Michelle, Mark and Jesse :)

08.24.10- On our last day in the States Raili and I went on a quick sightseeing. I showed her the most famous places and we hurried back home as I still needed to pack. My dear girls Emy, Tamara and Juliana( yes, finally Juliana was back as well, on my last day...how sweet lol) came and helped me to pack. I had missed the four of us together for so long. They did a great job helping me and just before I left Michelle came over too. I couldn't have asked a better company to send me off. Oh how I miss them all!!!

I was as ready as I could have been for our 17hour flight back home and couldn't believe it had really been two years...already!?!?

LA, visiting the Hartmans (08.18-20.10)

It was my two year anniversary being in America and I was on my way to LA to see Lamont, Nancy and Selah. I was happy and excited. I was also little sad though as the earlier days I had had lot of  fun with my boys KJ and Justin and leaving to LA meant I wouldn't be seeing them anymore for a long time. But...oh well...there's always skype and LA was just 3 hours away. Couldn't wait to see the Hollywood sign, another dream of mine :)

It was so good to see Lamont and Nancy again and oh boy how much Selah had grown. Lamont was the best guide ever and took me straight to the Walk of Fame. There were so many stars and the walk was so long. I didn't really want to go too far as it was so hot outside, so I took my pictures with the stars that were close to me and luckily some of my favorite like Sandra Bullock and Charlize Theron were there( not in real person, but as a pink stars). I also saw the Kodak Theatre were all the Oscars are, the Chinese Theatre, Beverly Hills, Rodeo drive and glimpse of Hollywood sign.

The next day Lamont and Nancy took me to the Santa Monica beach. It was amazing, just like in the "Baywatch". It was my first time to swim in the Pacific Ocean and I was pretty disappointed, as it was so freacking cold. Nevertheless, I tried out these waves and were satisfied with myself. In the evening Lamont took me to the "In'n'out burger" that was CA must have and it did taste delicious.

On my last day there Lamont and I went for a search of a good view to the Hollywood sign. We lost it couple of times behind the trees and buildings, but finally got a good spot. It had been wonderful three days with my old pastor and his family, but it was time to go back to DC.

I can't stop mentioning the book Lamont gave me when I left. It's called "The Dream Giver" by Bruce Wilkinson and it's the best book I have read so far, no kidding. It made me think about my life in a different way and I wish that all my friends would read it someday.

My farewell party (08.07.2010)

My dearest host family had planned for this party for weeks. They made all the food and asked me what would I like to have. It was so sweet of them.  All my friends who could come were invited and even Nicholas and Sophia were waiting for it. The party started at 4PM and knowing my friends I knew that nobody will be there on time.

Chris Lopez arrived with couple of his friends little before 5PM and some minutes later Mirja arrived with Sian. This was the little group we started eating with as I was really hungry and that food smelled so darn good. I would say that about 5:30PM Kevin and Justin arrived and after that Emy. Now we almost had the whole crew, only Michelle and Paolo were missing. As Michelle's time could have ment two more hours, we started with the cake. My host family made this beautiful speech that made me almost cry and Sophia and Nicholas both came and whispered that they love me. Awwwwww!!!

Finally Michelle came with Paolo, just little before we were finished lol. It's ok, I still love you, Michelle ;) The night was still young though, so Emy, KJ, Justin and I went out for a roll. We didn't have a definite plan so we were everywhere from SE to Chinatown until we ended up in the "Muse". It was quite a night, at least some of us had fun lol. That day I also found out that Justin was actually really funny, way funnier then I had expected him to be. All the upcoming days these two just cracked me up!

Having this amazing (host)family and wonderful friends makes me think every day how blessed I have been having them in my life. God's grace is amazing!

I remember all the people I have met and often think about each one of them ( J. Lotman)