At 12:55 this morning, I touched back down on American soil. It was a great ten days out of the country with a lot to share and even more to reflect on. Just not right now.

Besides the obvious fatigue I feel from spending ten days in a foreign country and not getting to bed until 4:00 this morning, I return to a mess of a room that was never fully put back together after returning from my summer assignment days before leaving, and with a mess of more than 750 video clips, hundreds of pictures to acquire from others, and more thoughts to process than the two put together. I’m going to need a day…

But for those waiting on bated breath, I will say that the trip was a very good experience. We did some great work and met some really great people, and overall, were all stretched in ways we probably didn’t expect. I certainly expected to be put outside of my comfort zone, given that it was my first trip outside of the country, but there were definitely some surprises. Health is always a concern on trips like these, and so all things considered, I’m pleased with how that went. Yes, I was one of the many people sidelined for part of the trip, but luckily I was not one of the ones with diarrhea (not that heat stroke is all that much better!) Overall, there were no major catastrophes but a lot of highly-positive experiences.

I plan on taking my much-needed two weeks vacation towards the end of the week, but before then will be reflecting on my experience and hopefully putting together some things to share. I plan on putting together the whole experience in a documentary-style video, which will be my main focus this week, but I can’t guarantee a deadline on that!

Until then, peace and good, and it’s good to be stateside!