Wedding and Honeymoon

The wedding was the happiest day of our lives. We were very focused on all the details right up until the day, then we put ourselves in the hands of our top notch wedding party and really got into the day. It was amazing to have both sides of Freeman's family, most of our closest friends, and Jo's parents and their friends all present and loving the day. Jo took Freeman's breath away with her elegant and electrifying dress. Freeman wore a tux and tried to keep up, though he was quite happy with the touch of panache supplied by the bow ties the guys in the wedding party were sporting.

The pictures from the day, taken by Herve Pelletier, can be found and purchased here. Herve was prolific in his duty to capture the day and we are honored by his diligence and the fine photographs we have to remember the day by.

Jo left for Tanzania the day after the wedding. She got to the Burlington, VT airport in the nick of time and was on her way to New York, then through London, to Nairobi, to Zanzibar, to Dar es Salaam, then finally to Arusha. On arrival she checked into a hotel and after waking up got right to work getting supplies for our impending community service trip. If not for her fluency in Kiswahili and excellent sense of how to get a project rolling, the trip would have been sunk. She managed to procure cement, tools, living quarters, and food all under budget and in time for Freeman's arrival with the 16 students a few days later.

We got to work building two classrooms and engaging in various cultural explorations throughout the month. The trip was then capped off by a one week walking and driving Safari in the Tanzanian national parks and Masai tribal lands. For full details on the trip, check out our Putney Student Travel blog here. There are some good posts from each stage of our work and journey during the month of July and into early August.

The lack of privacy that comes with working and living closely with 16 teenagers led us to postpone some of the more traditional events of a honeymoon. Who said we wanted a traditional honeymoon though?

From Sirens to Wedding Bells

We left the city on June 17th and made it up to Vermont late that night. We managed to fit everything we needed in a small rented hatchback packed to within an inch of its life. It was amazing to turn the page on the first New York chapter of our lives. Of all the things we intended and thought about, leaving meant that what we actually did was what would go down in the books. We are wrapping up the wedding planning from Middlebury now and the early guests have just started to arrive. 

Back on the 11th through the 14th of June we were having a great time at the Putney Student Travel (www.goputney.com) orientation for our Tanzania trip we're leading. The trip promises to be an eye opener for us and the sixteen students. Jo has taken on the bold task of heading out the day after the wedding to begin organizing the trip on the ground in Tanzania. Freeman will come along later, leaving the country on July 4th (?!) with the students. 

We look forward to keeping in touch through this weblog and posting photos from the wedding then our trip as we make our way.