#1 - 3 weeks to go

17/01/11

As the title may suggest, just 3 weeks until I leave for Panama.
can't believe it's actually a reality and not just something in the future, as it has been for ages.

I've done most of the preparation:

had so many jabs I'm essentially invincible, apart from rabies.
bought loads of quick-drying breathable clothes - apparently sometimes the atmosphere over there is sometimes so humid that clothes simply can't dry. and it's extremely hot.
earned and paid the money for the trip and flights - partly with compensation from when my nose got broken 3 years ago, partly from money I've earned working at Starbucks and I also received a more than generous donation of £750 from my church, which I can't thank them enough for.

but the biggest obstacle in my way is the mental challenge I'm going to face.
the longest I've been away from home before is 3 weeks (holiday to USA in 2001) and that was with my family.
this time, I'm away for 16 weeks with literally no-one who I know.
in a continent I've never visited.
where they speak a language I don't.

As I say, going to be tough.
but I didn't want a little holiday when I applied for it, I wanted a challenge and to be out of my comfort zone and in at the deep end and any other appropriate cliche. It's difficult enough not to get robbed in Central/South America let alone trying to help their communities out and talk to them about God.
but that's my challenge.

Just 3 weeks away.

It's my birthday on Friday btw. 19 years young. probably about a quarter of the way through my life already.

JG