Day 16

Friday, October 3, 2008
Bittersweet farewells to Baptista at the airport. What looks like a security check turns out to be just the trappings without the reality. I’ve forgotten to give her a hug but she waves me back through the phony electronic gateway and we say good bye. It’s hard to leave her there knowing the life of service to which she is committed and yet knowing that she has chosen that life with joy.
The passport check, the customs check, the security check (real this time), all involve long lines. The whole procedure reminds us a bit of the Soviet Union in 1989: not many signs, no directions, no announcements. We just follow the crowds and eventually end up in the right place and on the right plane. We find our assigned seats, sit down and look at each other. We’ve done it! We traveled through Zambia for 16 days having very little idea of what we were getting into. We are full to overflowing with new information, new insights, new emotions. It’s all a jumble right now but it is inside us and we will sort it out and make some sense of it all. In the meantime we are off on a brand new adventure. Reflections will come sooner or later. Now it’s on to Johannesburg.
The two hour flight is uneventful. We get our bags and after some wandering get the shuttle to our hotel, the Airport Grand. It is the Airport because the landing pattern comes noisily low right over the hotel. It is Grand because it just is. All the amenities and we settle in to the comfort without too much guilt. My niece, Beth, and her husband, Perry, are already there to greet us, and what a welcome reunion! It seems a world away from our last two weeks. They are full of questions about our trip and we about theirs, but most of that can wait. They have a fully equipped Land Rover for their three months in Southern Africa and need to finish getting that all packed. Paula and I enjoy a leisurely salad luncheon on the inner terrace overlooking the swimming pool. I find out how to get online and publish my blog posts at last and download 206 emails, including some from you all. We send a brief email to close family and friends, letting them know we are OK and have safely arrived in Johannesburg, and are amazed a few minutes later when our daughter, Becky (from Walla Walla), calls us on Skype! She happened to have the day off work, got our email, knew we were on line, and made the connection. We are thrilled to hear from her, and we marvel at the technology that makes this possible. Then it is time for a long evening dinner, sharing and talking with Perry and Beth, beautiful friends.
Bruce and Paula