October 10, 2017 I left the USA and ventured off with 49 strangers, essentially. It has now been 2 weeks since I returned home… alone.
If you want to understand a little bit how I’m feeling right now watch the Lord of the Rings, the extended version! Pay particular attention to the scenes at the beginning and the end when the hobbits are at the Green Dragon. They are doing the same thing they were when they left, something they had often done in the beginning, but it’s different; or maybe they’re different.
We watched the series our last week in Uganda (what else do you do when you have a lot of down time and no Wi-Fi?) and it was frighteningly fitting. The conversations about food, the pure exhaustion, the comradery, conversations about food… When it came to one of the last scenes when the hobbits are having beers at the Green Dragon I suddenly knew what they were feeling. Like somebody said “our first night in Boston”. Everything is the same, but somehow it’s different, maybe because I’ve changed.
It has been a journey, to say the least, and I’m not sure how I feel about it being over. Those 49 people are no longer strangers. Among those 49 are some who became more like family.
I’m getting used to making breakfast, going to my parents’ house and getting my coffee (no more Nescafe, this is the real stuff!) and driving to work. I’m getting used to coming home to an empty house and finding something that needs to be done and doing it. Or sometimes I go for a drive, just because I can.
Random things give me a jolt reminding me that I’m back in the states: the speaker pausing because his mic isn’t on and I look around for the translator, being able to, easily, converse with the cashier at the grocery store, not needing to convert to USD to know about how much I’m spending at a restaurant (yes I actually did that the other night. The only problem was I didn’t know which currency to convert it to!), toilet paper in bathrooms, drinking water from the tap (it’s a beautiful thing)…
I don’t know what this next season holds but I do know that in order for the next season to start you have to end the current one.
So, farewell Spring, and welcome Summer!
