T-10 Days

T-10 days

First off, I'd like to explore on paper my feelings about blogging in general, just to get the writing juices flowing.  I've never kept a blog before, for two reasons that immediately stand out to me, and maybe more sub-reasons that I'll come up with as I'm writing this.  The first reason is, I've never really done anything interesting enough to warrant writing, much less publishing an "e-journal", and frankly it is still a little foreign to me that anyone would really care to read my ramblings.  Alas, I made the promise to some unfortunate soul that I would try to keep a blog during my time as an SM.  Not sure anyone's going to win on that deal, but they're holding me to it, and everyone I've since told seems to be in favor of me doing this. I also feel some obligation to keep in the loop the many generous friends and family who have made this trip possible for me (Thanks again!).

My second reason for being wary of blogging is the fact that I'm not sure I want the liability of people reading my thoughts.  The goal is to keep the interest of 95% of the people reading this, 95% of the time.  We'll see how that goes, but my first and only disclaimer: If you find what I'm writing offensive in any way, first of all: sorry; second of all, I'm a 21 year old college student volunteering in a tropical, foreign country with no air conditioning and you're probably on your couch, so in the kindest and sincerest way possible, deal with it. That being said, my parents have the link to this blog, so I'll write it with them in mind. Also, right now I'm also on my couch since I haven't left yet, so my disclaimer is really quite tongue-in-cheek. My sub-disclaimer: My sense of humor isn't for everyone. I've tried to dissociate my humor from my "prose" and it's even less enjoyable to read than normal. Basically what this means is that I and about 3 of my closest friends think I'm hilarious, and everyone else just thinks I'm a goober (you know who you are). I use a lot of parentheses, as you've probably already noticed (If I have to start using parentheses inside of parentheses, somebody stage an intervention. I've taken a LOT of math classes so for me the nested parentheses make sense, but I'll try to keep this enjoyable for both walks of life, math and non-math). At any rate, I think the juice is loose (see p1 s1), so I'm going to get started here with the rest of my thoughts. Quick interjection, I expect most of my entries will be about as long as you've read to this point, or so. I know you all have busy lives too and so I'll try to keep it under 5-10 minutes of reading (Which will be hard to gauge with everyone reading different speeds. Maybe I should do an audio journal that you guys can download as a podcast or something. On second thought, that might be weird). On with the rest:

Today marks 10 days until I leave for my mission trip to Cameroon. Many people have asked a variety of questions. To these people I've given pretty much the exact same canned answers, so in order to repeat myself less, let me get the basic stuff out of the way:

As it stands right now, I am going to Buea, Cameroon, West Africa for 6-8 months (depending on how long my stipend lasts). I will be working in Buea Seventh-Day Adventist hospital doing administrative, maintenance, and medical work, pretty much just wherever I'm needed on any particular day. The truth is, I'm not sure what to expect beyond that. Yes, I'm excited, although I'd say "conflicted" would better describe my current emotional state. I think I'm experiencing a lot of white noise emotion so to speak. The constant barrage of varying feelings has become a cloudy quietness that hangs over me (no, this is not an advertisement for Beats by Dre). I think basically what's happening is that it hasn't really sunken in yet.

The meat of this first blog is actually a request. For those of you reading who pray (guessing that's all but a few), I'd like to request that you pray for me hardcore in the coming weeks and months. If prayer isn't your thing, I understand, and still appreciate your support (the fact that you're reading this at all is a start!) Whether you pray for my protection, pray that I will learn something, even pray that my faith will be tested and strengthened, I'd appreciate it! I know I'm in for some big challenges that I can't face alone, but we serve a God who sees those challenges as matchsticks. Also, just knowing I have all of you in my corner really gives a confidence booster. As soon as I have arrived I'll post an address and other ways to contact me (and to send food!!!) if you're interested. A little encouragement will go a long way I'm sure of it!

One specific thing that I've been thinking about in the past few hours is endurance. I just hope that I can make a good first impression with the staff to show that I'm a hard-working, quick-learning individual with the motivation and drive to get things done. However, I've got another battle to fight, and it's one I just learned about this summer working at camp: FATIGUE. I realized that I can no longer go ham (a slightly distasteful acronym that I would discourage one from searching on urbandictionary.com, but which basically has been turned into it's own phrase with completely severed references to any word of questionable origin that means working crazy hard or being in beast mode) all day every day. I'm gettin old folks. I found that there's this thing called getting burned out. And my open honest confession is that it happened to me at summer camp this last summer. And I DIDN'T LIKE IT! So the hope is (and a main, big prayer request for those looking for specifics) that I can find that balance between making a good impression, and my new found need to pace myself and getting into the water one step at a time instead of diving in. Especially with the food there, because I'm told Montezuma's Revenge strikes hardest those who consider themselves iron-stomached.

Thanks for spending some time with me today, I hope to at the very least keep you mildly entertained and annoyed while I'm abroad (almost like I'm still there with you all so you don't miss me as much!)

TL;DR (This acronym means too long;didn't read for those over the age of 25) The part of the show where Corbin tries to condense all of this down into a paragraph of questionably constructed run-on sentences:

I'm not a blogger, please don't get mad at what I say. I'm going to Cameroon on the 23rd of September to work in a hospital doing whatever they need me to do. I'll be there til I run out of money. Please pray for me and send food as soon as you know my address. My old bones have decided that I need to pace myself to dodge jet-lag and the squirts so if you want to pray for something specific before I leave, that's the thing to pray for. Thanks, you are all AWESOME.