Well, I'm out of shampoo...

...so it must be time to head home.

Tutaonana badi Kenya.

It's been real swell.

We've had our share of differences, yes...like that time that I had dysentery or when I had to watch hunting spiders battle to the death while perched atop a chair yelling in Rendille the only expression I knew to show how much I hated it - "MADOONO!" (I don't like!). Or how we ate mutton for a straight month because we ran out of food, or when I thought I was going to die out in the bush from a growling hyena that actually turned out to be a wild dog. Also...I'm just saying, Kenya, but your so-called roads? They need just a little bit of work. I have the bruises to prove it.

But it's been so, so worth it. A GIANT blessing, actually...to be here in this crazy country with the amazing privilege of serving the Lord in a place only He, in His infinite ways, could call me to.

If you'd told me last year that I would be living in a place like Korr when I came to Africa I would've told you that you were straight-up crazy.

Except, I wouldn't trade the last 8 months for anything.

Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,

we wait for you;

Your name and renown

are the desire of our hearts.

[Isaiah 26:8]

It's not a big deal, but..

In the last 3 weeks I have:

- kissed a giraffe (Allen the giraffe and I are good friends now)

- pet 3 baby cheetahs at Nairobi Animal Orphanage (we were let inside the cages...while they were feeding...oops?)

- snorkeled in the Indian Ocean (we saw 3 sting rays and lots of pretty fish, but our boat driver and crew were, shall we say, shady?)

- ridden a camel (they're much taller than they look)

- rafted the Nile River (not to mention that I choked and swallowed quite a bit of it)

- seen Lake Victoria (but refused to swim in it for a variety of health reasons...)

- been on safari and seen lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhinos, flamingos, hippos, hyenas, jackals, water buffaloes, giraffes...

- spent some sweet time with fellow short-termers serving all over Africa and had opportunities to encourage and pray for each other

And tomorrow, I head home to a country full of properly paved roads, high speed internet access, diet dr. pepper, and more fish tacos than I could ever want to eat.

Yeah...that's going to be a weird contrast.