Three Places at Once

Since graduation, I have spent the last week in Yellowstone taking an ecology class from my dad. The other students in the class call him gator, but for me that is awkward because my nickname is also gator. I just call him dad. My body has been in Yellowstone, but my mind has been in three different places all at once. I have enjoyed my time here getting to know new people and soaking in God's creation. But at the same time, a piece of me is still back home with family and friends. Yet another piece is looking forward to Burkina Faso.

In one day, my mind travels around the world. The west captivates me as I hike through the mountains, climb to waterfalls, and get to close for comfort to a moose on the side of the rode. I then travel home when I make phone calls to family and friends. In the evening, I am in Africa in front of the classroom as I work through a book on motivating young people donated to my by my mentor, Dr. Snyder. I brainstorm of classroom strategies and activities that can be used to make my class both effective and exciting. It is amazing to think that the today I feel the wintry chill of a mountainous spring but next week I will feel the blistering heat of the African sun. Today I speak in English but next week I will be stumbling over my French. The anticipation of the transition between chapters in life are always so surreal. The human mind I think is incapable of fully preparing itself for drastic change. Clinging to things that are known comes much easier than reaching for the unknown, but the unknown is much more exciting.

The past and future aside, I am now sitting in the "Bear Country Café" drinking my fifth cup of coffee. I used my french press (thanks Margee) this morning with water boiled atop a wood stove in the rustic Beaver Creek Cabin in the middle of the Gallatin National Forest. Last night was perhaps the first of many nights without running water or electricity. I would have slept fine had it been for an eager dean, Dr. Myer, who insisted on keeping the wood stove fully stocked with hot burning lodge pole pine. I think the man is cold-blooded, but he is the dean so none of us had the courage to speak up. To look on the bright side, we had more padding as all us slept on top of our sleeping bags instead of in them.

I drank my second and third cups of coffee with a delicious breakfast (thanks Dad) at a little diner overlooking the Madison river. I forget the name but will never forget the pancake. This morning was the first time I had bacon and eggs served on top of a pancake, never had thin strips of bacon looked so small.

Now I am in the cafe in West Yellowstone finishing my fifth cup of coffee. I have failed in my goal to gradually wean myself from caffeine before I leave for Africa. I guess I have always been an all or nothing type of guy.

I fly from Jackson Hole to Philly Sunday morning. Staging will last two days before the real flight leaves Tuesday night. My packs I will take from Africa have been sitting in the trailer untouched as I have managed on two pairs of clothes for this whole trip. I see it as a warm up for the next two years. The only supply that comes to mind that I need to get before I leave...zip ties! I can't believe I almost left for Africa without the most handy thing ever to be invented.