Meet Marianne

(This picture is Marianne at a restaurant in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)

I want to introduce you to a new friend-- one who has been instrumental in my journey to Ethiopia but whom I've never met in person(yet)! Her name is Marianne and she is a third grade teacher near Atlanta. Marianne is amazing, she just turned 27 and has been a world traveler, including spending last summer at AHOPE.

Last summer when I was researching this trip, I Googled volunteering in Ethiopia and found a site that was called a Teacher Goes to Ethiopia, and when I clicked on it, it was a fundraising page for a teacher who was volunteering at AHOPE in Addis Ababa. So, even though I knew she was in country, I emailed her that I would love to talk when she got back. And she actually emailed from her layover on the way home.

Seriously the kindness of strangers!! So, nice Marianne says I can ask questions and boy was I obnoxious, because I sent her something like 30 or more questions. Poor thing ended up sending me pages and pages of single spaced answers. I can't tell you how good I felt about my decision to have this experience after talking with her.

She is smart, very dedicated to her students and globally aware-- she was even offered teaching positions while she was traveling last summer-- which she contemplated accepting, way more adventurous than me!!! I'm super excited to get a chance to meet her in person, when I visit my friend Croft in Atlanta later this spring and see all her pictures.

Marianne S. -- Someone you should know.