Just a quick update...

In ZIM! We just went on a Safari in Botswana today and saw 22 different kinds of animals, Victoria Falls tomorrow, and then a week of teaching in Matobo Hills, a home stay overnight in a village, and then we begin to journey home on Friday. We are loving every minute, we are all safe and well, we can not believe we are here. Thank you for all of your wonderful thoughts and prayers! We will try to update the blog in the next few days with more detailed accounts of our travels and time in Africa so far.

WE FLY OUT IN 24 HOURS!!!!

12 more days!

It's crazy to thinkthat in 12 days we will be on

our way to Zimbabwe! First let me update you on our garage sale; we made about $400!! Let me start by saying Abby is the garage sale queen, she can sell anything to anybody. :)

Plus our yummy sweets and some precious students from our school selling them didn't hurt our cause either. It was a fun day for us and a great success in fundraising.

We've had a couple of meetings to decide what kinds of teacher trainings we are going to do. Ashley and I (Melissa) met with a teacher from Perimeter School who just went to Tanzania. She participated in a similar trip, so it was wonderful to meet with her and talk about what worked and what didn't work. We came away feeling excited and energized about our trip to Zimbabwe. As a team we discussed how important it is for us not to "Americanize" the schools in Zimbabwe. We want to help them use materials they already have and give them advice on how to enhance the ways they are already teaching their students. Plus, we are there to learn too! We are eager to see how they teach and what we can learn from them. We also decided to participate in a home-stay. We will go in groups and cook/eat dinner with some teachers in Zimbabwe and spend one night with them in their home. We hope this will give us a better understanding of their culture and allow us to get to know the teachers better. It will be outside of our comfort zone, but we know we will learn a lot!

We are still raising money and could use your support. Thank you so much to all of you who have already donated money, you are helping us get one step closer to our goal and Zimbabwe! We will update again before we leave and hopefully we can update while we are in Zimbabwe. I'll leave you with a sweet picture of the lovely girls that helped us raise money! Who wouldn't want to buy a cupcake from them?

GARAGE SALE - Saturday at 8:00!

We're having a fund-raising garage sale on Saturday from 8:00-2:00!  Here's the info:

2060 Fairhaven Cir NE
Atlanta, GA 30305

It's just off Peachtree Street at Peachtree Hills Avenue, 8th house on the left, multi-family sale.  
We'll have all kinds of stuff, including clothes, electronics, storage containers, furniture, and more!  Come on out to check out the goods and help us continue raising $$ to cover the costs of our upcoming trip to Zimbabwe!  See you Saturday!

Get your mobile phone ready!

Need to stay up to date with what's happening with our upcoming trip?  Well, now it's easier than ever to do!  Our blog is now in a format that is easy to view on your mobile phone!  So when you're sitting in the drive-through line at Chik-Fil-A, you can check in to see our latest updates!  FUN?!  I think so.

Pen Pals

I found this photo in a photo album on Drew Voyles' Facebook page.  Drew and some others recently went to Zimbabwe and hand-delivered letters that our Second Graders had written.  This is one of those letters.  So cool...

Movie Night on the Lawn a Success!!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out Wednesday to support our upcoming trip to Zimbabwe.  It was ridiculously hot and humid, but we all had fun hanging out, eating snacks, and watching one of the best movies of all time, Back to the Future!  Oh, and just a small side-note...we raised $734 dollars!  Unbelievable!  Thanks again for all of your support!  We appreciate your generosity!  Below are some pictures from the evening.