South Africa - Running Diary - Part IX

I lazily attempted to keep a running diary of my daily events during our trip to South Africa. What follows below is that lazy attempt. The words in quotes are the actual things I wrote in my journal, followed by a brief description (if necessary) to describe the words I wrote and the significance behind them. Whenever possible, I tried to document the time (local time depending on what time zone I was in) at which these events occurred. Hope that makes at least some sense…enjoy.

Saturday, January 23^rd – 9:30 pm: “I’ve learned more about myself in the past 10 days than I have in the past 10 years.” A bit of an exaggeration, sure; but perhaps an accurate description of an intriguing journey that I’ve been on for several years now. The fact that I even committed to and traveled to Joburg speaks volumes. There’s definitely been a character shift in my life over the past several years. A new focus, a new desire, a shift of the compass. My hope is that others who know me can attest to this shift in my life as well, and that they can still see a fire burning for the things I’ve seen, some 5 months after returning. A fear of mine from this trip (and written about a couple times while in S. Africa) is that I would return home and quickly go back to the way I was prior to being impacted by all the things I had been a part of. My fear is that I would go back to ‘business as usual’. The reality is, I see few things as dangerous as that.

Saturday, January 23^rd – 10:30 pm: “I’m sad to have to have to leave this city tomorrow.” Looking back, those 10 days flew by…and looking back, I’m still sad I had to leave that place. I’m left with the resolve that some day, I will go back. For now, I receive updates from one of my favorite people in the world who currently calls Joburg his home (click here for his blog), and from a couple people I met while over there who I can communicate with thanks to Facebook and Twitter. I will go back. Someday, I hope my son is able to go as well, to meet for himself the people that I pray for daily. Who else wants to go along!?