More than Mere Coincidence

As most of you know, we have pretty well finalized our exact location.  We have yet to talk to a supervisor on the field. Needless to say, they are busy and schedules are conflicting, but we hope to do so soon.  But, today, as I'm emailing back and forth with a friend who just went through training for another country, I share with her our target location.  She replies with "No way! You won't believe it but I'm looking at pictures of that city now! We have people over there!" So, she gives me their names to hopefully connect with through facebook.  I call Jason immediately and tell him how cool it is that we've found names of people who could possibly be on our team.  Well, it doesn't stop there! When I tell him the names, he says, "No way! Honey, we know her!" It turns out one of the girls has visited here with her family as guest speakers! He's been in contact with her through email but didn't know her exact location. She is now on the field on the team that we will be on!! So, today, through the wonderful world of Skype, we got to make our first connection with someone on the field exactly where we'll be!

We got to ask her what her day to day life looked like.  She was very positive about how much we were going to love it over there! She shared with us how conservative this particular city is, and that although it has a population of over a million people, it still functions like more of a village! She shared that I would most likely dress more and more like the people there.  Which is something that will take some adjusting.  I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason, the way I dress seems like a difficult thing to get used to.  I had prepared myself for jeans and a tunic, that didn't seem too drastic of a change.  But finding out that often I would be in full "suit" is a little overwhelming right now!  Seems silly, doesn't it? Such a minor thing to make major! I enjoy change and newness and celebrate all that will come with it, but my clothes, well, that just seems harder to handle.  I don't stress about brand name, I don't dress overly trendy, and I don't make myself all fancy, so you would think it would be no big deal. But I do try to keep myself presentable and up to date and I like feeling put together, so I guess what I'm saying is I'm just trying to register the many changes that will take place in the next year, clothing just being one of the many! I've already started looking on the bright side: She said she bought a shirt the other day for a DOLLAR!!! Now that's my kind of shopping! So, all in all, it was an awesome opportunity to chat with someone who is over there and it really was a very encouraging conversation!!!

I can't wait to look back at this blog post as I'm sure I will laugh out loud at the thought that the way I dress even came across my mind! I'm fully aware that there will be so much culture shock that I won't know what hit me! But, I also know that this IS the plan for my life and so whatever the cost, WHATEVER the cost, I'm willing to go, to be changed, to be molded, to be stripped away, in order to hopefully one day make a difference.