Parent visit

Hi TTS parents!

The Nortons (Mimi's family) just got back from visiting your girls in Africa and I can assure you they are one happy bunch!  Probably the most popular person on the trip was Mimi's little sister Georgia - I get the impression that the girls miss having siblings.  Katie sat with Georgia on the bus and they had long discussions about baking, food and avocados.  Malia has decided that Georgia will be marrying her brother Ceder and Rachel spent a lot of time planning the wedding.  At dinner one night, Kira blew us all away with her artistic ability, drawing portraits on her paper tablecloth while Lydia played hangman with Georgia.  Meanwhile, Caroline wowed us all with her Japanese abilities. Liz showed us her beautiful photos - particularly of the Milky Way, and taught Lourenco how to do extended exposure shots.  Simrill was also one of the designated photographers and showed us her equally incredible photos.  On the Sunday of our visit, Chloe was our "chieflet" and had to reroute our plans since the hike up Table Mountain was waylaid by the rain, so we went to the aquarium and she kept us all in line.  Emma had been a very impressive chieflet on our first day so Chloe had big shoes to fill, everyone says Emma is the "mom" of the group.  The girls were staying in a youth hostel and we poked our head in one of the rooms to see unbelievable chaos and disorder - it looked like their bags had exploded!   We got to sit in on an award-giving ceremony that the girls do every week and Pia, the ultimate Sweetheart, gave her Sweet-tart award to Mimi and then gave the Shooting Star Award to Georgia!  Simrill gave the athletic award to Caroline - though we heard that Toni is a very fast and talented runner.  Toni was trying to play down her abilities but the girls wouldn't let her get away with that!

So I can tell you that this is one cohesive group of girls having the time of their lives.  I know our daughter felt very conflicted about having us there as she was reluctant to spend any time away from the group.  She also said that we were a reminder that this experience would be ending soon, and that was very hard for her to face.  I expect re-entry will be quite challenging for all the girls so plan on giving them time and space to readjust (and try not to take it personally if they don''t want to  come home!)  I felt so privileged to get to know your daughters as they have become a "family" that includes my daughter.  I can't wait to see what they all end up doing with their lives after this incredible experience!