Readjustment Process

So I'm back, and I'm laying here in my bed wondering how it became so comfortable while I was gone. I'm also wondering why I couldn't have just kept sleeping like I did my first night home, which was just the day before yesterday. I feel like I was in Tanzania yesterday and somehow wound up in a bed on the other side of the world. It's almost 3pm in the afternoon there and not even dawn here in Nashville; I am wide awake. But alas, I have to give my body some sort of credit - it's trying to readjust.

It seems almost odd that in just two weeks my body acclimated itself to time in another place, another country, another continent; even odder is that my mind readjusted to it as well. They talk about "African time" as the idea that everyone is late to everywhere they go, at least from the perspective of the westerner waiting on them. To the Africans, though, time is not some sort of treasure that requires constant monitoring of the clock or the overuse of the day planner. And believe me, that causes problems like missed meetings and hurt feelings, but at the same time it serves as a reminder that we are not a slave to time and yet we make ourselves so; we place a value on time that is not required and yet drastically depletes our ability to let life happen at its own pace. In keeping with that, I looked at my calendar all but once yesterday and wasn't completely happy to be wearing a watch again - but I guess some bit of measurement is appropriate in my own fast-paced (and I'm in the South!) society and culture.

And that's just one observation of many from my time in Africa (which was far more than I was already hoping for). I can think of a million things to tell you about my trip, but it's hard to know where to start. Dane suggested I convey ideas in installments, possibly chronologically based or thematically based, and I think that's what I might do. I also, of course, want to show you pictures that, with a look over, seem to do a good bit of justice to the things I saw and experienced, although a camera will never capture all that was going on in my head at the moment. I keep thinking of ways to try and take everything in my head and my heart out to show you, to show you the wonder I felt towards those beautiful people, the compassion I found in others' suffering, the confusion and awkwardness of the culture contrast and still, the discovery in those moments, the marvel of God's creation - things that honestly took my breath away - all of it.

Please be patient with me as I find my way through the things I have experienced in the last two weeks; I wish nothing more than to share much of it with you in hopes that the lessons may be as stirring for you as they were - and are - for me. I can say one thing, though, if you ever have the opportunity and feel the call to go (anywhere, not just Africa), do it. You will never regret doing what God has asked you to no matter how hard or far away it seems. There is so much waiting for you there, both good and bad, and through it all you can be sure that God will be with you always (Matthew 28:20). I know at least that much is true.