I once had a friend who went on a 6-week volunteer trip to a third world country. When she returned, we got together for dinner and she regaled me with tales of building shelters, teaching English, and even giving away many of the clothes she had brought for the trip. Her story was expectedly not void of woes; she had suffered countless mosquito bites, painful sunburn, and could not be happier to have access to clean water again. And then her voice fell to a hush. "I only lost 3 pounds though. I left for the trip thinking I would return a skeleton. But I only lost three. I almost wish that I had caught dysentery or malaria while I was there...