Gracelyn Sparks

You may be confused when about the title, so let me explain. But first, welcome back! Thank you to all of my readers who check on my blog every once in a while, or have even subscribed! I just recently added a subscription button, so make sure you click that to get an email notification every time I post! Wow, that sounds a lot like a youtube video intro... Anywho, about the title: so, as you may or may not know, my parents lived in Angoche, Mozambique back in 2004, before they had kids. When we went there, we were wondering just how much Angoche would have developed since they were last there. So we traveled about five hours to get there, and realized that, contrary to our thoughts, Angoche hadn't changed that much. Sure, it had some progress and changes going on, but just not like we were expecting. In fact, my parents said that most of it was pretty much the same as they remembered. We had lunch on a hilltop where you could see the city. It had a great view! And apparently, my ...

Last Tuesday we went to a place called the Ilea, which means Island in Portuguese. My parents had been there before, and it's like an hour and a half away. The bridge to get there is, well, confusing. There's only one lane, and there are certain parts on the bridge that you can pull to the side to let cars coming from the opposite direction pass by. It took a while to get there, but once you get out of the car, the sight is truly beautiful! I mean, it's an island, so there are lots of beaches. We didn't swim, but we did get to do some sight seeing. On the island, there is an old fort that was used back in the 1500s. We were able to go inside and look around. It's really cool! It looks out on the beach, and there are still cannons lined around the roof. It's huge! And Tabby, Ben, and I had a lot of fun exploring the inside. After we went saw the fort, we had lunch, then looked in some stores. We were told we could find a certain kind of pants at the Ilea, but we ...

Hey guys! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a happy New Year! I know I did. Even though I didn't get to go to mk camp, I still got to shop at this GIANT mall called The Mall Of Africa. Before we left for South Africa, we got to decorate Christmas cookies at our colleagues' house. It was really fun! They were playing Christmas music and everything! It reminded me of when we used to go to our neighbor's house in D.C. and decorate Christmas cookies. Even though it didn't really feel like Christmas because of the weather and whatnot, we still enjoyed telling the Christmas story and opening presents. We all enjoyed our presents! I had a fun time making cards for my siblings and parents. We also made a gingerbread house. Kind of... It fell down. But luckily, I got a picture before it fell. We all enjoyed the good old tradition of making a gingerbread house!  In South Africa, we went to the mall I told you about called The Mall Of Africa. There...