leadership development and training with a Christian
organization to become social entrepreneurs in Burundi, the
Carlsons had no idea what to expect. They wanted to make
a positive impact but didn’t have a clue how to get started.
Only after arriving in East Africa did they understand what
would be required of them and how much bigger this move
was than they imagined.
Before making the move, the family had zero exposure
to the French language or Burundian culture, and both those
facts hit them hard when they made the transition. Kristy
wrote me, saying, “Ben and I joke that we’ve only been in
Burundi for two and a half years, but it feels like ten
because of the steep learning curve involved with our
move.” This was not what they had intended for their family
when first moving to Africa a decade ago, and they were far
from prepared. So what made them take the leap? In a word:
passion.
“I can wake up, drink and talk about coffee all day long
and not get tired,” Ben Carlson said in a TV interview.
“When I started realizing that, I started realizing that this
was what I wanted to do. This was who I wanted to be.”^2
Watching this interview online after a friend referred it to
me, I knew I needed to hear the Carlsons’ story from their
own mouths. So I reached out via e-mail and heard back
from Kristy a week later. She apologized for the delay but
explained that life can be pretty crazy in Burundi.
Once they had decided to pursue a change, she told me,
the Carlsons searched for ways to pursue their passions.