My home leave has been wonderful. What a blessing to have a month dedicated to spending time with people that I love and appreciate. I am at my dad’s place in Buffalo, Minnesota right now and we are getting ready to head to the southern farmland near the Iowa border where we’ll spend a couple of days with extended family. I’m ready to play some cribbage with grandpa George. Let’s hope I don’t get skunked!
I’d like to put some photos here, but the website isn’t letting me! Go to my recent photos to see pictures of all kinds of beautiful people I’ve been hanging out with on these travels, while I am away from the beautiful people in the Congo.
Thank you to all of my friends in San Diego, and those who came to town while I was there. I had a wonderful time connecting with you. I didn’t set foot on the sands or in Sea World or really any of the myriad traditional tourist destinations. I spent great time with many friends. (I did have lunch at Pacific Beach with Janell and the place was packed and quite a cultural eye-opener after life away for a year!)
I used to idealize the San Diego weather with the best of ‘em. But something does happen after living in the hot & swampy Congo air for a year. After last week, San Diego is now “Chilly Town” to me. This helps to grieve the loss of not being there just a little less, though it’s always been the friends that draw me back and not the other purported perfections.
I’m thankful that I’ll be stopping through again for just a few days before I head back to my Congo home. See you soon, San Diego.
Je suis bien arrivé samedi ici en Californie du Sud. Le voyage était bien passé sauf que j’ai raté un vol de connexion à Philadelphie. J’ai trouve un hôtel et j’étais capable de me reposer un peu avant de continuer. Le voyage pour le lendemain était à la direction de Los Angeles, mais mon ami Lowell m’a retrouvé et nous avons complété le dernier trajet par voiture. J’ai assisté le culte matinale a mon église dimanche et ces derniers jours j’ai visite avec plusieurs amies. C’est vrai que je me manque de l’Afrique, même au début de ce voyage mais c’est parce que l’Afrique est déjà dans mon cœur. Mes salutations à toute mes amies.
I’m now in Kinshasa for the better part of this week before I leave for my home visit in the USA. As I get closer to this visit, I anticipate that some things back in the USA will seem odd after a year under Kisangani’s African skies:
- Not enough bicycles on the road. Since the war, bicycle taxis are the primary mode of transportation in Kisangani. There are no stoplights and intersections are controlled by traffic cops Monday to Saturday during business hours. During those times if I am stopped at a light, I am in the middle of a mob of bikes. I see people striking up conversations as they sit on the backs of bikes side by side. When there are no traffic cops, it’s unmanaged chaos.
- Not nearly enough traffic circles. I’ve gotten used to traffic circle interchanges. Congo must be one of the very few countries that allow those entering the circle the right of way. It used to be this way in Rwanda when I first visited, but they’ve since changed it. You see, if you give the right of way to those entering, in heavy traffic people are legally stuck in the circle for hours and hours and have to break the law to get out.
- Driving over 30 mph and significant distances.
- Too much food choice. Kisangani has few restaurants and I am used to the standard fare. Having to choose from thousands of food options… it might make my head explode or cause me to lose my appetite! And few places to get a brochette of goat.
- So much English speaking.
- Dry and cool/cold early spring weather.
- Very little or no dancing in church.
- Winter brown landscapes when Congo is green, green, green all year round and has been from the beginning of time.
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