Seven

I thought I'd explain the pictures on my blog, since I said I was going to do so.  Most of them are self-explanatory, but bear with me. :)

The first picture was taken in London in June 2004.  I was on my way to Zambia, Africa for a mission trip, and my team had an eight-ish hour layover in England.  We took a good chunk of time to tour the city.  This is one of the first things I saw when I came out of the Tube.  Incidentally, England was my first foreign country.  I was seventeen.
The second picture was taken in Jordan in March 2006.  Several friends and I visited Petra, Jordan as part of our travel/study break during our semester in Israel.  I wish we had had more time there.  This is at the end of the Siq, a narrow crack that ends in the stone-carved, rose colored city.  I was nineteen.
The third picture is from my actual mission trip in Zambia in June 2004.  This little girl was standing in the doorway at one of the schools where we conducted our program.  I like this picture because it is so "Africa" and because the little girl is so cute.  This trip to Zambia really opened my eyes to poverty in the world.  I was seventeen.
The fourth picture was taken in Israel in February of 2006.  This was my first time going to Israel and my first time on the Temple Mount.  I've now been to Israel twice and been on the Temple Mount twice.  Israel is the place that sticks with me the most.  It is where I got one of my favorite nicknames (Ayelet, Hebrew for "gazelle").  It's also a place of endless adventure. I love Israel, though recently I've come to see that she is not always right and that Palestinian Christians are hurting because of some of her actions.  Nevertheless, Jerusalem is my favorite place in the world, at least so far.  I was nineteen and twenty-one.
The fifth picture is obviously from Egypt; these are the pyramids at Giza, outside of Cairo.  This was my first stop on my travel/study break in March 2006.  Some of my favorite memories of Egypt include riding rickety, old bikes in Luxor, galloping horses across the desert sands, and eating a stuffed pigeon.  I would love to go back to Egypt some day.  I was nineteen.
Last but not least is a picture from my recent trip to India.  India was just a few months ago, July 2010.  The picture on the background of my blog, behind my posts, is also from India.  India had its challenges, though on the whole it was one great adventure.  I loved the foreign culture and I loved working with PMI.  It was encouraging to see the church actively involved in the community.  These two kids are part of Pathshala, a program designed to help slum kids get ready for school.  Many of these children can be sponsored.  Part of their support is put into a fund, and the fund will be used to pay for these children to go to university when they are older.  This support will hopefully break the hopeless cycle of slum life for these and many more kids.  I was twenty-three.

I've come a long way and gone a long way in the last seven years.  I'm excited to see both where I'll be and where I've been in the next seven.