goodbyes and jet lag

Well, after a long time travelling (and a rather frustrating time in Dulles), I am back in Mechanicsville. It feels kinda weird...more about the whole reprogramming process in another entry, as right now I am still trying to get over the jet lag!

Like I said before, we had quite a few things on our plates before we left! Saturday we hung out with Katie and Alyson, since (a) they had a day off, and (b) it was Alyson's birthday! We went out to Bruma (an open-market type place, great for buying souveniers), then headed over to church where we put on a braai for the youth, and also in honor of our leaving. Of course, it was American style, with hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, baked beans, etc.

A funny thing about braais here (er, there)...it's traditional that men do all the cooking, and women stay inside fixing the salads. So of course I had to make sure I flipped a few hot dogs myself ;o) There are a few traditional gender roles here (er, there) that I've noticed. None are constricting or strict, but the expectations are a little different. Russell and I had fun breaking a few of those expectations while we were there...not in a mean way, but just showing what we were capable of. (They were shocked when he did his own laundry and cooked food, haha).

Sunday was our last service here, so we led music again and gave our testimonies. And they gave us a goodbye gift - two prints of paintings that Cheryl's son, Richard, made. It was the perfect gift, because (a) I had admired a few of the prints in Cheryl's house, and (b) I actually know the person who painted them! Then it was our last Sunday afternoon at Cheryl's (a time I'm really going to miss!), followed by dinner at Janice and Josh's. Josh made us all bunny chow, which is basically a cross between a sloppy joe and a big sub. A very long day/weekend, but definitely worth it!

Monday evening was the big celebration concert in honor of Cheryl's birthday. It was a lot of fun; she recruited various people to sing/play for the event, and they were all good. I opted to play a piano piece rather than sing, since my voice was still recovering from my extreme yelling a few weeks ago. Afterwards, I jumped in the kitchen to help with the dishwashing/plate collecting for the reception. It was a great way to see a lot of people before we left, especially Cheryl's family!

Tuesday evening we had a "family dinner" with Nomalanga and the kids, where we walked down to a restaurant and treated them to a take-away dinner. Then on Wednesday, we treated the TLC staff to a nice lunch, which we bought/fixed for them. We even used the nice plates and glasses in the church! It was our way of saying thank you to all of them, and doing something special for them.

An interesting thing came up in a conversation with Nomalanga. She was talking about us being there, and said (rough quotation here), "You two were so humble. I didn't know what you would be like living here. I thought you might come in thinking you were better than everyone else, and wouldn't even sit next to us. But you proved me wrong." On the one hand, it breaks my heart that she had that expectation. But given the fact that I was coming in as a white American, and the history of the place and reputation of Americans, I'm not that surprised. I'm touched that she was able to be honest about that, and that we were able to prove differently. The funny thing is, we didn't go out of our way to do that. We naturally treated everybody with respect and loved them as people, regardless of their race/class/status. Why do people have such a hard time doing that???

Saying goodbye to the kids was difficult. In some way, I think they sensed it, because in our final few days they were five times as affectionate towards us as normal. Lots of, "Teacher, sit here," hugs, and pushing to sit in our laps. We tried to explain to them as best as we could about our leaving, but I'm not sure how many really understood. I didn't want them to feel like we were just abandoning them. The staff was crying, and it was really hard for me to walk out of the hall and go in the car.

And now, I'm back here in the states. Of course, travelling was a bit of a headache...our flight from Washington, DC, to Richmond ended up being cancelled. So, instead of flying into Richmond at 6 pm, we were bussed in at midnight. Probably the most frustrating thing is that we were stranded in an airport only 2 hours away from where I live, and had they cancelled it earlier or given us a better idea of how long the delay would have been, I would have gotten someone to come pick me up. What a nice "Welcome to America" present.

I want to post some reflections/wrap-up things...but it's too soon. I still need time to process and get used to life here again, and really think about the things I experienced and changes within me. So once again, stay tuned...