Princess under a mosquito net

One of the first nights in Tanzania, Africa, I lay under my mosquito net and let out a sigh. I told the girls on my team, “A mosquito net makes me feel like a princess.” My face rested on my pillow holding a huge smile while my eyes filled with joy.
 
You see it had been less than a year since my heart burst open for Africa to take a hold of my life when my willingness to stay one week after a youth team trumped the price of changing my ticket or coming home late. And it was 5 years ago that I made my first step into the country of Tanzania and fell in love with speaking the language when I came for a summer to live with other college students in a mountain house using our time to reach out to villagers. And it was 2 year before that in 2007 when I first fell in love with the country of Africa through a visit to Kenya on a high school mission’s trip where I allowed myself to love orphans more than I loved alone time, looking fashionable, or even being away from home. And it was years and years and years before that when Africa was placed in my blood through my family’s connection to Kenya through my Grandparents two-year service in the Peace Corps. Africa is apart of me with or without my welcoming, but I can’t deny that I welcome it with open arms.
 
My love for Africa is deep and ever growing. I love the language, the culture, the people, the way of life and the ways I see God moving here.
 

 
I love the simplicity of feeling like a princess under a mosquito net. Doesn’t every girl want to feel like a princess? Doesn’t every Dad want their daughter to be treated like she was a princess? Isn’t it every little girl’s dream to grow up and embody a princess? Doesn’t a little girl see it as her destiny to be a princess and find her prince charming?
 
Africa seems to look a lot like my destiny because it accomplishes those feelings of being a princess, but not only under my mosquito net.
 
Africa’s culture is about respect, honor, joy, selflessness, and love; all the qualities a princess should strive for amidst her “kingdom”.
 
The children show respect in how they greet their elders with a special word in Swahili, “Shickamoo”. This is only used for those older than you and those to whom deserve honor. Conversations fill the air with laughter and glimpses of joy found in spending time with others and finding happiness in the most unexpected places.  Each person takes on the responsibility for the work, the family, and selflessly serves one another. The amount of love they have for one another is evident in their conversations, their word choices, their service, and their family time.
 
The qualities that Africa possesses are qualities I strive not just to experience in Africa, but also to actually live out in America or anywhere, for that matter. It isn’t just that Africa perfectly embodies all my heart passions, but it shows me the life that I love so much and want to be apart of.
 
I know that God wants me to live out a life worthy of the calling I have received and the destiny I was made for. I want to live out my life to mirror that which I love and live in right now in Africa. I want to live a life that respects and honors. One that is full of joy and selflessness. One that exudes lots of love without strings attached. It is one thing to see it lived out here, but it is a whole new way to walk it out in my own life. 
 
Africa has given me a glimpse of feeling like a princess, the feeling that God so desires for me to feel each and every day of my life. But he has given me this small incite so that I can move throughout the world seeing it as my “kingdom” and live out the characteristics of what a princess should represent. Even though I feel like a princess in Africa, I am a princess in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is my destiny. That is my calling. I am to live my life out knowing and proudly representing the Kingdom of Heaven.