I don't want a lamb to pee on my cereal and 7 other things I never thought I'd say...

Should I buy some green meat today at the market?

I'm not feeling so well, but don't worry, I think it's just food poisoning.

I can't do class at the normal time tomorrow, I'll be at a circumcision party

Please don't drink gasoline, it won't cure your stomach ache.

I didn't even wake up when the hyena ate a donkey about 30 yards from my tent.

No thanks, I'd rather you didn't slice my skin with a razor blade to help my wound heal.

Oh look! We got some kidney as an appetizer!

I think my life is about the biggest and most wonderful adventure a girl could ask for. A few months back, while I was in the capital, I realized that I had spoken 3 languages, purchased a watermelon, and negotiated for and ridden a motorcycle all before 7 am. To all who know me well, you know that adventure and I have a magnetic attraction. You know that I have dreamed most of my life of living far away and learning language and culture not my own. I'm living the dream.
   Sometimes, I look at one of my housemates and just express awe at where we live and what we do. I'm aware of the rare privilege I experience on a daily basis of learning the beautiful intricacies of a new culture and language: of traveling to places few others have seen or experienced: of finding myself stretched so far that God is really the only place left to turn. I remind myself that dreams really do come true.

But dreams are often vague and fuzzy. They don't always include the daily details like killing cockroaches in the bathroom at 3 am, and nearly fainting of heat exhaustion while grocery shopping. They don't detail the exhaustion of explaining 8 times in one day that you are single and childless in a culture where childlessness is a shame, and a woman's identity is her husband and children. They don't highlight that language leaning is lonely, because you cannot express yourself well in the language you're learning, and even your heart language skills begin to decline.

Someone once told me that God usually only gives us the next step of obedience because if he showed us the whole picture, we'd say 'no'. Maybe that's true. Maybe if you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd be on the verge of my 32nd birthday, living in the far-off desert regions of Africa, single, childless, halfway through my 3rd consecutive year of language learning, dealing with sickness almost weekly, and not making any significant strides toward changing the world, maybe I would have said 'no'. Maybe if I'd known how hard it is to deal with grief, loss, and tragedy from afar, and how much effort goes into maintaining long distance relationships with all but 7 people in your life I'd have shied from the challenge. But today, knowing the other side of things, I can still maintain that I'm living the dream. It's taking more grace and grit than I could've predicted, and the details are significantly different than those I would have included, but it still thrills my heart to imagine what God has in store next. Whether this journey of mine ever has much impact on the people around me, I see ways God has changed me which make everything worth it. I'm learning things about trust that I could have learned in no other way. I guess I'll continue to dream big, and then hang on for the ride!