The Unexpected

Roger spends hours putting together our trips, beginning with the larger piece of finding the best price for travel to and from Africa on an airline that I will actually get onto … airlines with an obscure name and ratings below zero I am highly opposed to. It's not the comfort factor that can be annoying; it's the sheer odds of arriving alive that play a huge part in my reticence to fly on some of them.

Then, after dates and flights are in place, there's coordinating projects, trainings, leaders' schedules, housing, etc. ad infinitum. It goes on and on and he does an unbelievably great job. However, even with as much of the logistics covered as possible, we have learned when traveling that it's all about being flexible. We used to just think it was being flexible in the sense of "going with the flow," but now we know that most times, it has come to mean that God is rearranging our schedules to line up better with what He wants to do. We are now able to readjust our thinking and our day's plan according to whatever has just happened … a flat tire, a delayed plane, being held up at a border. In other words, we have learned to hold "our plans" loosely, and look for how and where God is leading us in His plan for the day. We've found that often it is so much more exciting and fruitful than anything we could have planned, so now, we tend to shrug our shoulders and just rest, knowing that His plans are often a lot higher—and better—than ours.

Perhaps the best part of not living in my usual state of trying to control everything and everybody is that being present to the present often gifts me with so much joy. I've met fascinating people from all over the world, most of whom shockingly think and believe much differently than I do, but comfortingly, they often feel very much the same as I do. I've seen amazing things just riding in a car or stopped by the roadside: zebras grazing as close as 500 yards from me, red elephants walking in a herd in search of water, Masai tribesmen holding their spears, always ready to protect their cattle from wild animals, endless streams of women with a baby wrapped on their backs, while they balance huge loads of vegetables on their heads to sell walking endless miles to reach the market.

I'm not sure one encounter is any more spectacular than the other, but this morning's incident was definitely a surprise. Inside our little bungalow there is a two-sided concrete shower. One wall has a window opening to the outside which is covered with 2 inch mesh wire. The other side is a concrete wall ¾ high and then sheeting of black plastic hanging down connecting the roof to the concrete. All around the backside of our "house" is bamboo or other thick vegetation. Remembering to turn on the switch that miraculously makes hot water come out of the showerhead, I quickly dashed under the small stream of water. It has been cold and rainy and our house being a bit drafty, speed is of utmost importance. Just when I had my hair all soaped up, I "felt" someone looking at me. I glanced up and over my shoulder and there was "Malcolm," the resident DeBrazza monkey lifting up the plastic sheet peering in watching me!

Malcolm came to the compound apparently abandoned by his mom as a baby and has found this place to be safe with fruits and nuts plentiful in the rich vegetation. His human mom, UK born Theresa, does not want to tame him too much, but does leave a papaya or banana high in the tree outside her office each morning just for him. When I told her, "Guess who came to shower with me this morning," she laughed, and said, "How cheeky of him!" Quite so! It really is the unexpected on our journeys that always bring the greatest joys!