Finding Focus in Senegal

I'm back!  It has been a long couple days of traveling, but the time definitely goes faster with a team than alone.  The flights were all fine, and although we had an almost-mistake with luggage, everything came through!

It has been so incredibly awesomely wonderful to get to see everyone again.  Liz and Kim picked us up at the airport and took us to a hotel room to shower and doze.  Except we didn't doze, because they were so hilarious and random, and I'm so glad they are exactly the way I remember them, even down to Kim's cheesy motherliness. (As she watched Liz and I exclaim over the awesomeness of Hunger Games, she cooed, "It's like seeing my children back together!")

Dakar is the same.  Fatick is the same.  I remember everything, and it feels like only weeks since I left.  Even though there are five new girls running around, I still feel very much at home in Liz's house (although my room has been turned into Melanie's and Jessie's) and at the Forsythe's.  Baby Ethan put on clean clothes and parted his hair to sit on the trampoline and wait for me.  HOW CUTE.  And Melody looked absolutely stunning in her short hair and an adorable little sundress.  And Nate was snarky and sarcastic, but he asked for a second hug.

I'm so happy to be here.  I'm so happy here.  I love the slow lifestyle--during one taxi through Dakar, Christina asked, "Why are they just sitting on the curb?" to which Liz and I had no answer.  Later when the two of us were waiting for Ibrahima to pick us up in his set plass to take us to Fatick, I pointed out that we'd been sitting silently on the curb for an hour, simply enduring the heat.)

On the flight here, I was seated next to a missionary who lives near Fatick and who knows the Forsythes.  It was so incredibly uplifting to talk to him about my family, my history with missions, and my thoughts of where God is leading me.  He shared his story and encouraged me, and it was just such a clear, peaceful feeling of "yes, this is right."  I don't know why everyone doesn't want to be missionaries.  It's when we get out of our comfort zones and allow ourselves to need God that He comes through in awesome and meaningful ways.

I've only been here one day, and I don't want to leave.  Melody and I wished on a star this evening while lying on the trampoline, and I wished that I could stay in Fatick.  She said she had wished something about me, but wouldn't say what so that it would come true.

Everything feels better here.  No worries about boys or romance.  No false security in jobs or status or money.  Life is harder here, and more real.  The people here are larger than life, and passionate about God, and determined to see Him work in their lives. 

It's awesome.