Last leg

The time has come to leave this continent and return to the continent of our origin. Our time in Burundi has gone by very quickly and has been a great time of transition and also gaining new perspectives on medical work in the developing world. We have a lot to think about and process. But, right now we are SUPER excited about our return. I have a list of about 50 things I'm looking forward to in America: Friend and family (of course), a COLD Christmas, Red Robin, blue cheese, Trader Joes, movies in the theater, fast internet...and the list goes on.

On the other hand, we are returning to America after spending two years in a totally different culture that has come to feel almost normal. It feels like we are about to jump off a cliff into the unknown sea of reverse culture shock. I'm quite interested and a little frightened to see what that's like. We'll let you know. 

goodbye

Leaving. I knew it would be a sad day. I had no idea it would be this sad. The last two years were the most challenging, difficult, and intense years of my life. To leave the ones who were there through all the hard, exciting, and heart-breaking experiences...words cannot describe the loss we feel.

Our month of goodbyes in pictures. We said goodbye to those who we became good friends during our first few months of language learning.  We give these folks credit for keeping us alive when we first arrived.

We said goodbye to the operating room and surgical nursing staff at a lovely farewell dinner.

We said goodbye to M, who is a lovely friend and helped keep us fed by cooking beans and rice, tortillas, and bread for us.

We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner with the entire compound.

we said goodbye in church (Luke spoke in Hausa...which was kindly translated into "better" Hausa that everyone could understand). :)

we (thankfully) said goodbye to Luke's beard :)

The schoolkids had a farewell party for us and gave us lovely custom tie-dyed pillowcases

we will miss you Buddy :(

Finally, a bunch of people (including most of the operating room staff) came to the airstrip to say final goodbyes. Many tears were shed.

As you can see, there were so many goodbyes to so many people we have come to know and love.
And, this isn't everyone. There were many more good byes with many more people, but you get the idea.  It has been one of the saddest months of our lives. But we are also excited to get home and see our families and see our friends that have been praying for us and supporting us these two long years and to tell them of the great adventures that we have had. Mixed emotions, Argh!!!!

we'll miss you, too, Martin

another world

We are on vacation in Italy. Its bizarre to be in a different part of the world after not leaving Africa for 16 months. A few pics from our trip so far. First, we said goodbye to some dear friends.

Goodbyes...we're gonna miss these guys.

Then, we continued our journey by plane.

sleeping in the Not Constantinople airport (its nobody's business but the Turks') after our red-eye flight, waiting for our flight to Rome

the sight that met us as we stepped off the metro in Rome

 the Colosseum is bigger and more impressive than we imagined. Also, I love the cold weather. Cold weather is AWESOME. I am now convinced more than ever that I am a cold weather person.

Strawberries!!! so delicious. When the vendor saw my eyes light up when I saw them, he stuffed the tray in my hands and said; 1.50! What a STEAL!

breakfast 

we have eaten some pizza  at every meal (except breakfast) so far. I cannot get enough PIZZA. It is my favorite food and it seems every restaurant here knows how to make very well.