Coming "Home" in the New Year

     Have you ever gone back to where you spent your entire childhood and curled up on the couch with a roaring fire, your puppy dogs, and lots of down/wool blankets and gear to keep you warm and just be glad you're home? Well despite freezing my bum off, I was able to pull off the ultimate surprise as a slightly early birthday surprise for my mom and went home for a week. Now she won't admit that she had no idea... But needless to say she was surprised to find me in the family room with just a few days left in 2014.

Jean and I had a full turkey!

Christmas luncheon in Ireland

     But when I last left you, I was on my way to Ireland to celebrate Christmas. It was cold, quiet, peaceful and lovely. Jean met me at the airport and on the drive to Ballybrack updated me on everything that had happened with Himself. I was glad to learn that it was truly unexpected and quick and there was no suffering involved when he died. We did everything that he wanted me to do, even down to using the Santa themed china pattern. He spent too much money on me picking out the most thoughtful gifts, including a very useful flashlight (that I used last night), an umbrella, and some fancy new perfume that I really enjoy. We had the most fabulous Christmas luncheon, all things that Mr. O'Hara wanted me to have. It was really quite delightful. It was good to be there so that Jean could relax a little. I know she appreciated me opening the door and chatting away with friends and neighbors that continued to check in on her. I believe I was also a good excuse to decline several Christmas luncheon invitations. She told me that she was tired of being minded and how one of her daughters hadn't let her drive for almost two weeks! I told her that since I still can't drive a stick the driving wouldn't be a problem. I met their son Sean and his wife, Lisa and their four children. Even they had bought me two small presents, which made me feel bad as I had been told specifically not to get them anything. I was very grateful for my mother's presents. She mailed me some new long sleeve shirts and a scarf with matching fingerless gloves. I'm fairly certain I had them on almost the entire time I was there. I met Mr. O'Hara's nephew, Jared and his family because Himself had specifically told Jared he must come and meet me. And we all toasted him with some delicious port.

Ironically, one day we all (grandkids included) went to the Dublin zoo. It's quite a good zoo, but I must admit I found it a little amusing that I was looking at giraffes, gorillas, rhinos, hippos, and lions for the first time in several years and I live in Africa. This will hopefully be rectified next month.

     After five days Jean took me back to the Dublin airport and I hopped my flight to JFK. I spent the majority of the flight devouring book six of the Harry Potter series that I had started just a few days before... how I managed to escape the Harry Potter epidemic before, I don't know. I blame my favorite children to babysit, the Griffith Boys... particularly Morgan. All I knew of Harry Potter was random chapters in the middle of the books I would read to him and the entire time I wondered what the heck these stories were about as Morgan corrected my pronunciation of names every two minutes. Anyway, I continued to enjoy Harry Potter while I devoured a Big Mac with extra pickles as my first meal back in the US and I chipped away the hours of my almost 6 hour layover. A six hour layer for a 37 minute flight. But finally, I arrived at BWI and my neighbor Aunt Randy scooped me up and took me home.

     My father knew I was coming, but my mother had no idea (despite what she may claim). And I wish I had captured the look on her face when I came around the doors into the family room where she was snuggled on the couch with a movie. I think it was quite the surprise ("And I usually hate surprises!") but a good one. The other part of the surprise is that I was hosting a birthday dinner for her the Saturday after New Years and her brother and his wife were coming down from Connecticut as an additional surprise. I already knew what I was going to cook, but just for good measure I thought I'd double check... sure enough I'd nailed it... surf & turf of lobster tails and steak. Aunt Sharon acted as my sous chef and made the broth for French Onion Soup while I made the crab dip and my Dad broiled the steaks while I steamed the lobster tails. It was a lovely dinner, despite seriously burning my fingers we all had a great time with family and friends who were able to join us. 

Who doesn't love lobster?

The table setting for Mom's surprise birthday dinner.

First course: French onion soup

     After dinner we all watched the Ravens play the Steelers in the wildcard playoffs. I enjoyed the first half but found myself dozing in the second half quite a bit. But it was fun to actually watch a game. I've been streaming 98 Rock (radio station) over an app on my phone the entire time I've been in Rwanda, which is pretty good. Overall there's maybe a five minute delay, but it's decent commentary and at least it's a part of home that I can have here. Unfortunately, the game tonight won't be on until 11:35 pm my time and I have tried so hard to get over my jet lag that I don't know if I'll stay up for it.

Friends since 2nd grade!

     Anyway, I was able to see many of my friends while home in Baltimore and DC and even popped up to Philadelphia for New Years to see friends whom I'd missed seeing before I left in August. It was a very relaxing week filled with junk food and good food (it's quite strange the things you crave when you live in a developing nation) and I'm glad I got home. I even got to speak to a high school class about my job when I popped in to say hi to my friend's mother. I only had one mild state of panic when my mother abandoned me in Wal-Mart. She was looking for Stevia for my dad. She went to check one area and I another... I of course found the proper aisle. This ginormously long aisle was 3/4 dedicated to sugar and sweeteners. I ended up calling my dad when my mother didn't answer her cell phone because I literally didn't know what to do there were so many options. I was completely overwhelmed.

Molly & I skating

New Years with Megan!

Drinks with Kathleen & Joe

Ice skating in Georgetown with Emily & Mark

     I was quite surprised to find approximately 3000 lbs of nursing and medical textbooks in my parents house as well. My social media campaign to gather the textbooks to bring back here for CHUB got a little out of hand, but in a good way! I am now tasked with trying to get the books shipped here to Rwanda, as my original thought of just bringing an extra suitcase back with me, clearly won't cut it. If you are interested in helping (every little bit helps) please visit my Go Fund Me page. I would really appreciate it and I know the staff who work at CHUB and the students who rotate through the hospital will really appreciate it. There is a lot of hard work that happens here and they have a thirst for knowledge unlike I've ever seen, so please help me make this happen.

Just some of the textbooks donated...

2 inches of snow before I left!

     Tuesday morning when I left Monkton the schools were closed and we had two inches of snow on the ground. It was beautiful albeit FREEZING. As my Uncle Rick kept saying, "your blood has thinned" and I wasn't tolerating the cold very well. I was impressed with myself that I had survived an hour and a half of outdoor ice skating with friends one night. Mom had me in the car obsessively early for the drive to Dulles, but this time we stopped at G & M for a crabcake lunch. 

COLD ALL THE TIME

Farewell USA lunch at G&M. Such good crabcakes.

It was perfect timing. By the time we got to the Washington Beltway, there was no traffic and we arrived at Dulles just as KLM started to accept baggage, 4 hours before my flight. Following airport tradition, mom and I grabbed some Starbucks before she said goodbye at the TSA checkpoint, the same spot where she had said goodbye in August. But this time was different. I really am not coming back for the next 8 months. I told her, "No more surprises." And of course whenever my mom starts to cry, I start to cry, to the point that when the TSA guy checked my boarding pass even he told me to make sure to call my mom when I landed. When my plane took off it felt so different this time. The excitement and novelty of moving to Africa has long since worn off and instead of being excited and scared, I just felt sad and a little lonely.

     My flights were uneventful, unless you count the screaming and therefore not so cute child who cried the entire red eye to Amsterdam. I landed in Kigali at 7:15 pm Wednesday and was welcomed by a lovely and breezey 70 degrees. My taxi driver was waiting for me and I arrived back home in Butare just before 10:30 pm. Vanessa and Julie had waited up for me and were very excited for the goodies I had brought back, which included face products, Berger Cookies, Oreos, spices, rubber cleaning gloves, new dish towels, Sirracha, and bug spray. It's the little things that matter when you live in Africa. I wasn't able to sleep until almost 4 am (perhaps because I was reading Harry Potter) so Thursday morning I slept in and got up about 10 am, where I promptly finished the final book of Harry Potter (all seven consumed in 1 month).

     I walked to work and felt odd wandering down our dirt road. I felt as though I was back where I belonged and yet felt completely out of place. I had the same sense when I was home too. Where is my home these days?

Lessons Learned:

1) True jet lag is truly terrible.

2) Even the briefest visits are well worth it.