I've been Tagged

My dear friend Jess over at Sassy Pants "tagged" me on her blog. It has taken me a while to get around to this, but the deal is that I'm supposed to answer a couple of questions to help my readers get to know me better, then pass it on.

The rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Share 5 places you want to see or see again.
4. Tag 5 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that you tagged them by leaving a comment on their blog.

So let me give this a try...

Five Random Facts about myself:
1. I've never liked shoes. I wear them out of necessity. As a kid I walked around barefoot as often as I could get away with it. But many times it backfired as I have vivid memories of stepping on glass and rusty nails and having my brother ride me home on his bike to spend the rest of the weekend with my foot propped up and wrapped in gauze.
2. My first car was a baby blue 1980 Volkswagon Rabbit with a hot pink steering wheel and red pinstripes.
3. I have a faint birthmark on my inner thigh, and when I was little I thought it was a drop of pee that dried on, but I was never able to scrub it off. My son has a birthmark on his inner thigh, too, on the opposite leg from where mine is.
4. I played Varsity Tennis my Freshman year in high school. Impressed? Usually I leave it at that, but the truth is it was a tiny school, and anyone who could lift a racket was on the varsity team. Still, I think I was pretty good. :)
5. I've been to Africa 13 times and have visited ten different nations. The place which holds the most stamps in my passport is Kenya, which I consider to be my second home, and where once I stayed for three months to work with the street boys who stole my heart on my very first visit. They taught me contentment, real joy, and Swahili. The first four or five trips were on a volunteer basis, and the rest became a part of my job with Youth for Christ.

Five places I'd like to visit or visit again:
1. The Great Wall of China, just to stand on the only man-made structure visible from space!
2. Australia -- my aunt, uncle, and two cousins have lived in Perth since the early 80's and have given us a standing invitation to stay with them.
3. The ancient Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, Peru.
4. Hawaii. Particularly Kaui.
5. Mt. Kilimanjaro -- as much as we said we were glad we made it to the summit in 2003 so we would never have to return to try it again, we find ourselves talking about "the next time" and what other routes we would like to try.

Tag! You're it!
Instead of tagging anyone specific, I'm just going to leave this invitation on the table, and if you want to pick it up and run with it, leave me a comment and let me know so I can read your entry, too!