It's 1am Saturday morning. In 28 hours from now I will be on my way to the airport. Flying out of San Diego to Dallas, then Dallas to Reagan National Airport in DC. I will stay in DC Sunday night all day Monday and Tuesday until 10pm when I will make my final trip...destination Mali, West Africa. This flight will take me to Paris (7 1/2 hours) with a 5 hour layover, then another flight to Bamako (5 1/2 hours).
I am humbled by the outpouring of support, love and friendship that I have been shown these past few months. Every person that I know, good, bad or indifferent, is a contributor to the person that I am today. Without all of you, without all my mistakes, failures and successes I wouldn't be me. Some of you may be thinking, "that's not the worse thing that could happen". But keep in mind who I am and my knowing you has also been a contributor to who you are. So there!!
Since my epiphany yesterday I am still unusually calm. I guess it's because I'm as packed as I'm going to get, I've seen everyone that I'm going to see and there is nothing I can do at this point about anything. The boys will have to figure out there own stuff and I am ready to go. Tomorrow I have to make one more quick trip past my storage unit, then to say goodbye to ma famille afrique. That's going to be tough. I'm sure it's hard for them to understand that they spent years trying to get out of Africa. They left behind so many people that they loved. And here I am trying to get to Africa. We have become very close and now I am leaving them. I bought them a webcam for their computer so we can Skype while I'm gone. We've tried it out and it works but since English is still so difficult for them they just pretty much sit there and wave until I just hang up.
After these two errands I'm just going to hang out at home. The boys will come over and some friends will be here. We're going to have pizza (the last supper) and a sleep over. I'm sure we'll talk and laugh into the wee morning hours and then everyone is going to get up to say goodbye. Josh, Jarrod, Loreen and Randy will take me to the airport. Bon Voyage. I feel OK about leaving because I'm not going very far. Just to DC. All this anxiety and getting ready and feeling sick about leaving the boys and when I finally part from them I'll be able to say, "I'll Skype you and see you in a few hours when I get there." Kind of anti-climatic don't ya think? With modern technology so prelevant in our lives the world is a much smaller place.
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