Home and Back Again

A little over 6 months after leaving for Zambia and I’m sitting in the exact same spot at the same airport gate in DC ready to head back. It all seems very neat and planned. Nearly three weeks at home was a perfect half-way marker; an opportunity to reflect and recollect. More than anything though, it was a chance to catch up with all the people I miss having in my life. Unsurprisingly, it was not the most relaxing vacation with all the running and driving around. Happily though, I managed to see almost everyone I intended to. Between a really nice open house my parents threw my first weekend back to a trip to New York (the only place that gave me culture shock) to an annual holiday party with old friends and much more, it was a very full and happy holidays. The only thing missing? Snow. A year without snow is a really strange thought.

While the plane rides have been long, and doing the trip twice within a month is certainly daunting, there have been many bright spots. Navigating the airport systems is becoming easier and that helps cut down on the stress that often comes with air travel. The airborne vistas have been particularly beautiful during these trips as well, from crackling thunderheads on the Joburg horizon to yellow orange dawn breaking like the yolk of an egg over DC to watching meteors flash and fizzle like flares around our plane high above the ocean.

There were many things I looked forward to about coming back home. I probably ate my weight in home cooked meals and holiday feasting and of course I had to get my fill of favorites like greasy pizza and good old American Chinese food. I definitely filled up on the holidays as well; I felt like I was on a crash course to catch up on the spirit from the minute I stepped off the plane. I never realized how much Christmas and the holidays permeate almost all aspects of our lives during those months. The inner warmth of it all certainly goes a long way toward redeeming the literal cold that I felt all the more sharply this time around.

There are, of course, many things I also look forward to about heading back. I look forward to replacing the pale white light of the weak winter sun with the rich gold radiance that lasts late into the evening. I am excited to see friends and run around outdoors and even to get back to work. I'm ready to switch sides of the road, eat off a braai and, most surprisingly, begin to sort out what the next year is going to bring.