A goal is a dream with a plan.

When do dreams become a reality? Is it when you finally buy the plane ticket? Or maybe when you walk out of your last day at work. Or is it when you find yourself in that place you dreamed of and think to yourself “I am actually here.”

I have had a vague plan to return to Tanzania ever since I concluded my Goshen College SST in 2011. Over the past five years, that dream has ebbed and flowed, but finally gained traction with the help of Laura and Tarik Krabill Kheshgi in 2014. The tangible planning and dreaming began with lots of online research, grant writing, and emails across the world.

Now the final countdown begins with one month until the three of us meet in the Toronto airport and fly together to northern Tanzania where we will live for the next nine months. This dream is starting to feel real, I am working my last shifts at the hospital, awaiting my visa approval, editing my packing list, and attempting to tie up many of my life’s loose ends.

But my expectations for what I’ll do and how I’ll feel when I step off the plane are still nebulous. I am open to the challenges and adventures as they come, and can’t really seem to bring myself to expect anything in particular.

So here I am starting my blog. I hope you will join me in this adventure as the nebula of my experiences in Tanzania begin to solidify and take shape. I hope to use this platform to share stories and photos of my life and work. I hope to take each of you with me on my physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual adventures.