Sunday, June 30, 2013

T minus 23 and counting...

23 hours from now, a plane will take us away from Kenya, probably forever. There have been a lot of mixed feelings in our house this week. For the little one in particular, it's been tough balancing her excitement to travel to the States soon with her sense of loss. End result: child's behavior is alternately enthusiastic and downright awful.

For me, I have realized that this is the first move we've made where we may never set foot in this city - or country - again. We'd be crazy to pay for a trip to come here, when we've already seen and done so much (and there are so many other new places to visit!). But this sense of finality is really putting a damper on my own excitement to leave.

On the bright side, we have pulled off one of our lowest stress moves of all time (thus far). Our stuff was pretty much organized / sorted / tossed / sold before the movers came. We seem to have everything now we planned on having, and all that we have fits in our suitcases - or in strategically timed care packages to family.  The house is clean, the laundry is done well before midnight, and we have time to host a goodbye cookie-party at the playground before we leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow's journey starts with a week around Europe, then a 4-week trek across the Western US. This is one of those times...home is where the family is.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Cute-isms

This one's for you, Mom.

Amidst the overwhelming number of details to take care of in getting ready for the international move, a few weeks of life without "stuff", and a vacation in Paris on the way to home leave, the kiddo has come up with a few questions. Most of them revolve around the schedule, which is complicated at best. But some of them reflect how truly she is a third culture kid.

For example, when on the phone with her grandparents, who have talked about taking her fishing or panning for gold in the lakes and rivers, she asks,
"Are there any hippos there? What about crocodiles?"

A wise question from her usual milieu.

This past weekend we were doing one of our "why didn't we buy this stuff before" shopping trips, and we went right through a big fancy new Nairobi interchange, which happened to have a cell tower  in the middle (a REAL one, not a pole with guide wires). The child asks,
"Wait, are we in Paris already?"

When we expressed confusion, she points out the cell tower and says it looks like the Eiffel Tower (it does, a bit), and notes, "It must have been that this road was so smooth I forgot we were still in Kenya!"

By car, elephant, and rickshaw

To be honest, I would have nixed the Lumbini part of the trip. We are facing down our last year in Nepal, and finally willing to overcome ...