Happy 4th of July!

Hello all! Just wanted to quickly wish you a Happy 4th! All but two of the G16ers (the group I came in with) are here in Conakry to celebrate the 4th, welcome the new group of education volunteers that comes in on Wednesday that we are SO thrilled to finally get to meet, and to celebrate our one year anniversary in Guinea. What a lot we have to celebrate Today we’re doing a pig roast and potluck. We all chipped in to buy a three-in-one blender/juicer yesterday, and we are going to be making some delicious tropical drinks with the Malibu rum the Barrons sent Rachel in one of her care packages. It should be a very fun day, and I think we are all especially grateful for our freedom after living in a country with plenty of checkpoints, bribes and general corruption for the past year.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I was doing at this same time last year — running around like crazy getting everything in order to leave and having a wonderful 4th of July celebration with my cousins (Matt & Tim), the Reynolds family, and the Dimond family. I hope you all have fun celebrating with family and friends back home. I sure wish I could be there with you!