Well, I made it to Africa. Been here for roughly 3 weeks now, and the best way I can describe it just ‘wow’. There’s no service here, no way to contact the outside world. We’re 4 hours outside of the main city, and wifi is solid 2 and a half hour stretch.
It’s undeniably isolated here, but its undeniably beautiful. Just a small village tucked away in the rural countryside. Lot’s of hills, lots of farmland and cows and donkeys and horses. Almost looks like home. Almost.
There are tons of kids roaming the property who keep it lively and fun. A lot of our time is spent loving those little rascals—they make it easy.
Contrary to what we expected, it’s freezing here. At least by my California standards it is. Jeans, sweatshirts, and fuzzy socks are a must. Even more surprising, there are no mosquitos here, we’re too high in altitude.
There’s a market that goes on every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday, but it only sells produce, meat, and grain. As you could probably imagine, it doesn’t cost much to sustain us. I withdrew $50 USD for the entire 3 months I’m here and I’m almost positive I’ll have money leftover.
Life here is completely different from the way I normally live—even the way I lived in Cambodia, and I’ve completely fallen in love with it.
There hasn’t been a time when I’ve wanted to have my phone or have internet. I don’t find myself wishing I was able to go to a coffee shop or out to eat. Something about all of those things being far out of reach makes you realize that there are real people and a real God who wants you to invest in them. Not that this is impossible with service and internet at your fingertips, but it’s harder to choose all in to the people around you. Here you have to choose all in. It’s been a really cool time choosing to be uncomfortable and honest with the people around me to figure out growth paths and figure out ways to love them better and work on the places that I’ve been lacking. Tons and tons and tons awareness and humility to even get to this point. It’s been sweet.
And you’d be surprised by how much the Lord likes to talk when there are no distractions—makes me almost certain that he usually has a lot to say, I’m just getting better at listening.
I’m certain I’ll eventually write a blog on the things the Lord has been teaching me here in Ethiopia, so I’ll just preface it here and leave all the details in that blog: God has been teaching me a lot about what it means to die to myself.
