My Long Lost Friend

      One of my favorite characters growing up as I explored the frontier of Literary Fiction was Dustfinger from the novel Inkheart. His flashy fire eating skills, his best pal Gwen the Marten, and his wry sense of humor caught my attention and instantly became one of my good friends.

           Never would I ever imagined stepping into his shoes and seeing things from his point of view. Just as he arrived in an unknown and foreign world, a world that was something beyond his imagination so did I two years ago.

            
       I was called to serve a mission in the Angola Luanda Mission, a place on the other side of the globe, and for me a whole other world. I was immersed in a new culture, a new people, a new language, and a new life. I had to quickly adapt to new conditions and circumstances within this new world to survive. Things like no water, no energy, the hot baking sun, dust everywhere, and pestering drunks galore were part of my new life, my new home.  

       And just as quickly as it started, I had to go home, back to my original way of living, back to my other world. How I would look at life and how I would live the rest of my life would forever be changed through this experience, but it was nice to be home. It cost Dustfinger 10 years in another world and for me only 2, but I feel we both became better men as we made our journey back home.