Africa for Christmas.

I am going to Africa for Christmas!!! For the last several months I have been in this very strange place of where to go and what to do. My internship has long been over and I have since been hoping I suppose that a job would just materialize. If I would have known that I would basically have 3 plus months off not working I might have taken better advantage of it. While job searching I have also been wondering where I could go and what I could do at this stage in life. I have no attachments, no commitments, no debt and some money saved up-sounds like a perfect time to make some life-long dreams happen. I want to live a better story-to say yes to things-to take risks and live out dreams. Africa is one of those dreams and it is coming true. When I was in DFW I attended the Village Church and was involved in a home group at the Smith's house. The Smiths have now been in Ethiopia for over a year and before they left I told them I wanted to come one day. They are missionaries through the Village; she is a nurse in a clinic and he runs a sports camp. I had emailed them a while back about coming and they had mentioned they were pretty full until the new year, but just the other day they emailed me with an opportunity. There is a girl going there from Houston and traveling alone. She wanted a travel buddy and they thought I would be interested...and of course I was. The trip is 17 days and it is over Christmas. It will be very strange to not be home for Christmas and to instead be in the bush in Africa...it will mostly be like Christmas came and went and I was unaware. This partly makes me sad because I love the season and I think it will be somewhat strange to miss it, but on the other hand I have had 26 American Christmas' and I will have plenty more, but how many chances will I get to do this. Christmas is about Christ anyway. It is about Him leaving His home to take up residence with us in order to bring us salvation. Going to Africa may even seem more appropriate than what I would normally do during the holiday season. I am very excited-EXCEPT for the nearly dozen vaccines they recommend for entering that continent and country. Who know it cost so much not to die from a deadly disease....i really had no idea.