The adventure began before i even got to the zoo...I was meeting Judit at the Fredry tram stop when i saw her tram approaching....the tram stopped and the doors opened and out popped Judit, smiling as usual.  Her smile lasted a split second before i heard a scream and suddenly realized it was me and i was frozen as i saw a car smash into Judit as she stepped off the tram.  Had she stepped a few inches further, she would have been in the path of the whole car front, but as it was, she only got hit with the side and the mirror.  Her foot didn't even get run over, which was a miracle.  Both of us still shaking, we boarded the 17 tram, on our way to the zoo here in Poznan.  The two young girls driving the car were told to pull over to the side by the tram driver, so that he could get their information.  It was crazy.  It was really crazy.  I mean, nothing like that has happened before--to me or to her the whole time we have been here.  And seeing that, was...nuts.  Just thinking about it now....what if she had been hit, and hurt, really bad?  I was, AM, just so thankful that God gave her safety in that situation.  And then i got us lost....LOL....got a little too confident with my "locator" skills and thought i could do things without consulting the map.  Never a good idea when you are visitng a NEW area, no matter how well you know the familiar areas.  But, we eventually made it to the zoo where we met up with Dagmara, Pawel and Ola and a little later Amelia and her boyfriend Gino.
The zoo is HUMONGOUS.  we walked around in it--and still didn't see EVERYTHING--for 3 hours about!  Everything is just really spread out, and we weren't moving too fast, so that may have been why 3 hours went by and we still hadn't gone through the whole thing.  They even had a bald eagle there!  Two actually, but i was not too impressed with the area they were enclosed in.  When you think about it....and Judit and i DID think about it...zoo's are unfortuante places almost.  Because of the limits the animals are given.  I don't know, it is important and cool that we can observe them, and in some ways this helps sustain a certain population, but....like this bald eagle for example...was NOT impressed with what it was provided.  And i am NOT typically one of the "animal rights" kind of people who goes overboard on the issue.  The elephant area is the main attraction and is pretty impressive, i must say.....but then, elephants don't fly,a nd a simple wall can easily keep them from escaping.  It would be much more difficult with birds to give them a large area.
Tomorrow i get the honor of picking up our guest speaker form the train station and treating him to breakfast before church!  He was a student here in Poznan and went back to the Ivory Coast and began a Bread of Life foundation there!!  And now he will be speaking at our church tomorrow morning.  :)  I look forward to talking with him and hearing about how the Lord led him to do what he did!
Just finished Skyping with the family for Aryanna's birthday party....*sigh*  Sure do miss home and family and friends.  I guess that is all i really have to say about that.  In many ways i can't wait to be home, but at the same time, i would not trade a moment of my time here.  I am enjoying this time far too much, and am way too convinced that i am right where i am supposed to be for this time.
Dobra noc.