In August, I will embark upon Survivor: Costa Rica.
Before you get all impressed, it's not that Survivor. Admit it, I know what you were thinking. "She's gonna be on that show? Well, I know who's going home first..." (Don't worry. I'm right there thinking the same thing. The idea of me being on that Survivor is....laughable.)
The best parts? I get to take my whole family. I won't have to live on a secluded island without a flush toilet or air-conditioning. I won't have to put up with people who scheme, connive, and lie just to get ahead.
So what do I mean? Unless you are regular subscribers or readers of either my writing blog or our ministry blogs (links on the home page), you haven't heard the news. Our mission board (yes, we're missionaries) cleared us to leave for language school in Costa Rica in August. We're doing a shortened term; one year in Costa Rica learning Spanish, then one year in Mexico City.
Aside from the amazing news that we're finally leaving, after years of funding, here's the really cool part and what it means for me:
We'll be without a car for ONE YEAR. Which means that we'll have to either walk everywhere or take public transportation. Our home will likely be at least a 10-minute walk, one way, to the school. So, five days a week we'll be walking to and from school. Then on weekends, unless our church, the market, etc. are really too far away to walk, we'll be walking on those days as well. Combine that with not having fast food as accessible as it is here, and a regular diet of (lots of) rice and beans, and that means that the pounds will be coming off.
If other ladies are any indication, it would not surprise me in the least if at least half (if not more) of what I need to lose will be shed before the year is up.
When we return to the States in 2014, a very different looking Jenny will be stepping off that plane. Just like often happens with contestants of the other Survivor. I may not be in the running for a million bucks. But I will have received something far more precious than money at the end of my stint on Survivor: Costa Rica.
My life.
