W...w...W...Wellington washes World Cup who is washing Whanganui

I can only hope that some of you know the Dr Suess reference.  I read that book many, many, many times to Mazie.

We woke up in Wellington (in our room inside an apartment, inside a parking garage, inside a shopping mall) and got dressed for the big game.  USA vs Netherlands.  We stopped at a wonderful cafe called The Hangar.  There were lots of Americans fueling up for the game, which is actually great, because it's winter here and the tourist crowd is not great otherwise.

Pork Belly Eggs Benedict

Our seats were awesome and the crowd was so much fun.  Lots of Netherlands fans and tons of USA fans.  We got to see the Crane family, who we adore.  

One funny thing about the game was that the Netherlands flag is Red, then White, then Blue.  I had wrist bands that perfectly matched their flag.  Confusing.  What's more confusing is that they wear all orange and have orange flags too.  When they cheer, the yell, "Poland, Poland, Poland." Which makes no sense until most of the way through the game and you realize they've been chanting, "Holland, Holland, Holland."  Right.  Except...what's going on?  The math teacher in me failed to retain the Netherlands vs Holland distinction.  Amsterdam is in Holland and Holland is like in the Netherlands...is the Netherlands...used to be the Netherlands....will be the Netherlands???*  Then we were wondering where is Zealand?  We know where New Zealand is, but that means there is a Zealand somewhere, right?**  Like New England is from England.  But what is New England?  Does it include New York?  NO!  Right?  It's Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut.  I'M NOT SURE!***  My dad knew everything and I don't know everything.  I wish Mazie would stop asking so many questions.

Where was I?  Oh, the game.  The US kinda stunk it up in the first half.  Netherlands was more fun to watch and #17 was a problem.  We were down 0-1 at half, but the coach subbed in Rose Lavelle (I wear her jersey) and the game turned around.  She assisted Lindsey Horan (who was an absolute beast for 90 minutes) to tie the game up 1-1.  We had lots of chances in the final 10 minutes, but couldn't find the win.  Someone tell me why the coach made 1 sub in 100 minutes of soccer when he's got fantastic players on his sideline...LIKE RAPINOE?!?!?!

Their Instagram photo

Our Photo!!!!

(that's Ertz, Morgan, Rapinoe)

Pretty cool to be right there.

After the game we headed north to Whanganui.  We stopped at a McDonald's for one reason and one reason only.  We wanted to go through a drive through on the wrong side of the car.  It was awesome!  The food?  Fine.  Turns out Mazie had her first ever McDonald's burger in New Zealand of all places.  Who knew? I was unable to get the hot mustard nugget sauce for my burger and refused to substitute with the oyster sauce.  Go fdul;cjk yourself.  Am I right?  It was a less than optimal experience. 

The scenery from Wellington to Whanganui could best be described as...similar to Colorado, actually.  Flat grasslands with farms and beautiful mountain ranges in the distance.  Their mountains are a little greener than ours, but with pine trees and yellow coloring as well it really did remind me of home.  Mazie and I talked a lot about how the more you see the more you find similarities, rather than differences.  This part reminds me of Washington.  This part reminds me of Rwanda.  This is like Arizona.  This is like Winter Park.  That's like Wisconsin.  This looks like Hawaii.  What I thought was really cool was how New Zealand seemed to have so much biodiversity that I truly saw all those places in a few hours of traveling the country side.  I wasn't shocked by anything, but it was so beautiful.

There are a ton of sheep everywhere.  Or as Mazie said, "Holy Sheep!"

We arrived at our bed and breakfast at a reasonable hour, but since it is winter here, the sun had already set and we went to dinner in the dark of night.  We found a sports bar that put on the Portugal v Vietnam game, but we were too tired to make it past halftime.  They had a very cute downtown strip and the city is situated alongside a river, which makes for great views and a nice river walk.  We also stumbled upon this....

Biggest Pool Table in the Southern Hemisphere. Cool.

I'm trying to catch up on the blogs.  I'm a day behind, but since we're a day ahead here, it's like I'm two days behind.  Or I'm not behind at all.  On Saturday morning (tomorrow) I'm going to post about our amazing day traveling from Whanganui to Taupo on Friday (yesterday).  You will read about that on Friday around 2pm (today?).

Time travel is difficult, logistically speaking.  I'm just trying to make sure I don't run into future me or past me.  That's the one thing I know is an issue.  I'm staying in a different airbnb every night so that I'm hard to find.

Goodnight!

*Holland refers to North Holland and South Holland (Noord and Zuid) which are two of the 12 provinces of the Netherlands.  Amsterdam is in Noord-Holland.  So those fans were only cheering for 16.67% of their country.

**Very interesting coincidence here.  New Zealand is named after a Dutch Province, Zeeland.  Which literally borders Zuid-Holland.  And yeah, the answer is DUTCH province, not Netherlands province, even though google maps finds it as Zeeland, Netherlands.  I want to compare the Dutch flag to the Netherlands flag to the Holland flag.****

***I was right.  New England = Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts's, Connecticut, and Rhode Island 

****The "dutch flag" used to be orange, white, and blue and then the French outlawed the color orange, so the Netherlands flag changed to Red, White and Blue.  Orange is the colour of the Dutch Royal Family, The House of Orange-Nassau.  So the all orange flag with a lion on it is in honor of that history.  But don't fly the old orange, white, and blue unless you're a Nazi sympathizer.  geez.

Getting to the island!

We had an uneventful flight (which is fantastic) to Honolulu. We got our stuff and took a taxi to our Airbnb apartment. We like to stay in Airbnbs, rather than hotels because it's more interesting (and usually cheaper). This apartment was smaller than a hotel room, but who cares. It was two blocks from Waikiki Beach, so off we went to get in the water. My God. So warm and clear and beautiful. Lots of surfers and boogie boarders. 

Mazie and I went out for dinner at The Sushi Spot. It was amazing, as you might guess. 

It's interesting going on dates with your kid. She's old enough that I expect her to be like Katie (deciding what to get and sharing things we order), but young enough that she just wants a California roll. We ordered way too much food, but she tried almost everything. 

We got to finish our sushi for breakfast in our little apartment, which was so Hawaii. 

One observation about our brief time there. At first, it felt like we were in a foreign country. (sorry Obama) My brain was doing the foreign language work and I was wondering if the international plan on my phone had kicked in. Mazie was like, "Dad, we're still in the states." Oh, right. 

But pretty soon it felt really normal and we could have been in California or Emerald Isle. Mazie didn't even seem that impressed. (She doesn't get all worked up very easily) I asked her something like, "can you believe you're in Hawaii?" Her response was, "when you've spent 5 months in Africa, this isn't that big of a deal." (I'm paraphrasing) 

I don't know how to feel about that. I'm simultaneously annoyed by her privilege to be able to say that sentence and happy that she's traveled the world enough not to be shocked by an American island with volcanic mountains. 

As a parent, I'm doing that thing we all do with a teenager. HEY, ISN'T THIS COOL? WANT TO HAVE A BIG REACTION, PLEASE? And as a teenager she's doing the... yeah, it's like whatever. That's fine, but I want her to understand how amazing it is to be here and see these things. I didn't see Hawaii until I was 39. Wait, 34? Yeah, our 10 year wedding anniversary. I think she gets it. 

Off to the airport with plenty of time so that we didn't miss our international flight. 9 hours to Auckland, New Zealand. We got to sit together and had another uneventful flight. We crossed the time line, though so we moved 22 hours ahead. Left Tuesday morning and got in Wednesday evening. Crazy. 

Honolulu Airport

Taking off from the airport

Looking back at Honolulu

Arrived in Auckland!!

We had a two hour layover, which made me happy because we didn't need to rush and we could grab some dinner. 

And then.... 

We got through the passport check very quickly. It was all automated, which is kind of cool. 

Then we waited for 30 minutes for our bags. Got em and got in line to declare fruits or farm equipment and waited. And waited. It took an hour to get through that process and we now only had 30 minutes to get to our gate. I figured that would be enough. Then we stepped out of that area and into the main terminal. Oh shit, we have to go through security?? Let's hustle. We followed the signs for domestic terminal and then Mazie spotted our biggest problem, "this way for free shuttle to the domestic terminal." No, no, no. 

We went outside and found the bus stop. We're screwed. Then the bus didn't come for 12 minutes. We're screwed. Then we got to the domestic terminal security line 10 minutes before or flight takes off. We're screwed. Then we got through in 5 minutes and raced to our gate. 

Closed. 

So, we missed our 7:40 flight from Auckland to Wellington

We went out of security, back to ticketing and amazingly, we got put on the 8:40 flight. It's 7:47 now and it only took 5 minutes to go through security the first time, so we stopped to grab some dinner in the nearly empty airport. (I know... I'm in the future too[KD note: I don't know what this means]) After a quick bite we went back to the security line at 8:05 and it was quite long. Turns out they had just shut down all but one lane. 

We tried the, "sorry can we cut ahead of you? We're about to miss out flight." 

"We all are!" 

"Oh." 

It took 25 minutes to get through and then we RAN. We had to make this flight, so we were sprinting with our heavy backpacks while they were calling our names over the PA system. Mazie nearly fell and dropped her backpack in dramatic fashion to keep her balance. I heard the thud behind me and the gasps/giggles. When I turned around I saw her laughing and running back to her bag that was 20 feet behind her. Off we go again and I turned the corner to run up the escalator and misjudged the changing height of the stairs and ate it hard on the teeth of the escalator. No time to be embarrassed, let's go. 

We were 30 feet from the gate when the airline attendant pumped his hands and said, "stop running, you're okay." We made it. Big high five.

Made it to Wellington an hour late. 

We walked to the gas station to pick up our rental car keys. Yup. And then walked down the street to find the car. 

I knew that New Zealand drives on the left, but hadn't thought a ton about the steering wheel being on the right. I drove on the wrong side of the road (which was correct) and turned my windshield wipers on every time I wanted to change lanes. This was way harder than driving in Kigali. Here I can't use my instincts, I have to go against them the whole time. It reminds me of Batman (Michael Keaton) driving full speed at a rock wall before it opens at the last second. Or Harry Potter at the train station. You just have to close your eyes, drive into oncoming traffic and trust that it's going to work out. 

We got to our place and walked through an alley into a shopping mall and then up some stairs to a parking lot. The Airbnb host let us in the gate and walked us to our apartment. That's when we found out that we had only rented a room inside that apartment. We were greeted by a nice man in a bathrobe in the kitchen and shown to our room. After shutting the door Mazie and I made eye contact that said it all. I explained that this is actually how Airbnb used to be all the time...just a room in a house. She said, "It shouldn't have ever been that way."

Mazie has been an absolute delight to travel with. Her sense of humor is so good and she rolls with the punches like a pro. I'm so excited for our first day in New Zealand and our first World Cup game. 

ADVENTURES!

Other Pictures!!!

Waikiki

Art above the clouds

Arriving in Auckland

Caleb and Mazie are Off to New Zealand!

Father's Day card from Mazie to Caleb

I've decided to use the blog again as a digital journal to record the adventure we're about to go on, to focus my thoughts during the trip, and to say funny things about our travels.

Mazie and I are headed to New Zealand for the World Cup. This was not a last minute idea that the rest of the family couldn't pull off. Rather, this is a trip 30 years in the making.

When I was 12 or 13 my mom took me on a trip to Europe. We went to England, Switzerland, and Italy. As part of a very large family, it was quite unusual to travel with only my mom. I loved the trip and I still have such fond memories of that adventure and my special time with my mama. I wanted to do the same thing for my kids, so Katie and I agreed that she would take them somewhere special when they turn 10 and I would take them when they're 15.

When Mazie was 10, Katie took her to Ghana on a work trip and Sweden for a conference. She took Athena to Athens for a conference last year. Katie's work travel really raised the bar on what was possible. 

4 years ago, while watching the women's world cup, it dawned on me that Mazie would be 15 in 2023. We looked up the 6-7 host cities still in the running and decided we would go wherever the tournament was being played. 3 years ago they picked Australia/New Zealand.

So Mazie and I have known we were taking this once-in-a-lifetime daddy/daughter trip for the past 3 years.

I picked 15 because I love high school aged kids. (I hear that too) I used to be a high school math teacher and I always respected/appreciated the moment that those humans are in. They're so close to being adults, but still children in need of life experiences to truly understand the world. It's a bit risky though, since some 15 year olds hate their parents. 

Mazie is an absolute delight. She is witty and energetic, kind and sarcastic, independent and dependent. I couldn't be happier about our goofy close friendship right now as we embark on a 12 day trip together. (just putting it in the record that I liked her when we started this) 

First stage is Denver to Honolulu. We didn't get seats together on our flight (how do separate a parent and kid) and couldn't work our magic to fix it. Some people are the worst. All I needed as for 47D (flying alone) to switch with 49G...both aisle seats. Then, 49F (49G's husband) could switch with 47E (Mazie)...that's middle for middle, no big deal. Then 49E (me) and 49F could be together and watch movies without speaking. 

She's fine. 7 hours to Honolulu! 

We stay overnight in Waikiki, then catch a 10:45am flight on Tuesday to Auckland, New Zealand. We arrive 31 hours later (22 hour time change and 9 hour flight) on Wednesday afternoon. One more 90 minute flight and we're in Wellington and our adventure truly begins. 

Our first game will be on Thursday at 1pm. USA vs Netherlands. (Wednesday at 7pm in Colorado)

I'm looking forward to many great pictures and stories of our adventures. We'll see if anything is funny. 

A Tribute to Three Fathers

Of the many TBD questions about life post-Rwanda, one is: what will become of this blog?  I'd like to continue to make time to write about everyday life and Big Questions.  Fathers Day seems like a good opportunity to share some Thoughts about three important Dads in my life, and why I'm so grateful for each of them.

#1 Dad (chronologically at least, for me): Papa Steve Hansen

I thought about you a lot while we were gone, and wished it had worked for you to come visit us.  So much about our experience made me think about my connection to you and our shared values.  There was one morning in particular when Ahya was visiting and we visited Nyungwe National Park... we were staying at a guest house near the park and I woke up early and took a little walk.  I think the natural beauty of the spot we were in got me thinking about my love of nature and how deeply my core values are connected to you.  I thought about our many bike rides and boat rides and camping trips we took as a kid, and the nature class you and Mom put me in when we lived in New Jersey.  I learned to walk like a robin and learned a prayer to Great Mother Forest - if I'm remembering correctly, I think it was attributed to the "pygmy" people, which is an outdated and offensive term for several different indigenous peoples, one of which happens to be the Twa whose homelands include the rainforest we were visiting on that trip.  I can't remember the whole prayer, but here's part of it: 

Great Mother Forest

If I am to please you, I must not pluck or kill more than I can use.

I must not pollute your sweet waters, or harm the earth to which one day I must return.

If I do not obey your teachings, you will perish, and I with you.

I wonder if you remember more of it.  Or maybe that's all?  In any case, that connection to our planet and my commitment to honor her have been with me since I was a kid and continue to connect me to you today.  I'm so glad you and Nanny were here to visit this past week and I'm still trying to figure out how to be more present for quality time with you when we're together.  I love you, Daddy.

#2 Dad (again, not a ranking, just a list-ordering): My father-in-law, Gil

I'm so glad you were able to come see us in Rwanda and share part of our adventure - I know it wasn't easy to get there and we kept you moving at lightning speed while you were there!  I appreciate your deep love of family and the unconditional love you show all of us.  It was a joy to watch you extend that love to our neighbors in Rwanda.  I also appreciate and maybe am starting to feel more connected to your relationship with the divine.  Our faith traditions and practices are different, but I see in you a commitment to the belief that we are all good and worthy and deserving, and I think that comes from a similar core belief that we are all connected to each other and to Something Greater.  I'm glad we share that, and I'm grateful for your role in shaping Dad #3 into the person he is...

Dad #3 (guess who??): James Caleb Kalibu Dickinson

Where to even start with This Musaza?  I love you so entirely and the task of explaining why and expressing my gratitude to you is overwhelming.  Here's what is front of mind today.  Being your co-parent for 15 years has been a joy.  From the first moments of staring blissfully at our progeny and taking in their perfection, to our current amusement and wonder at who these young humans are becoming, I've learned so much from you and have felt deep fulfillment in having you at my side in this parenting adventure.  You are a gifted communicator and connector.  You've helped teach our children, and me, to speak from a place of love and understanding, naming our feelings and needs and inviting others to do the same.  I love who you are in the world, and I'm so grateful for your willingness to step out into the larger world with me and to help our whole family open our hearts across culture and language barriers and connect in ways that we wouldn't have without you.  You give me and your daughters the gift of knowing that we are entirely and securely loved, and I think that gives all of us the power to reach outside of ourselves and take risks in the way we love others and our world, knowing you are there to hold us no matter what.  Thank you for loving us so well, and for being my partner at each step of our adventure together.  What's next?

FAQ

Over the past month or so, as we started to turn our attention towards home-going, Caleb and I talked about how excited we were to reconnect with friends and family… and also how hard it was to imagine how we’d respond to people’s questions about our experience.  We know that all of you (and, even more so, those who haven’t faithfully read our blog for the past five months) will be curious and want to know a lot of things about our trip.  But we’re still figuring it all out and making sense of what we’ve experienced, and probably will be for a while.  But ALSO, we really DO want to engage and connect, so answering “I don’t know” or “I don’t really want to talk about it” isn’t what we want to do either.  SO – we thought we’d try to anticipate some potential questions and think about how we want to answer those.  With some time on our hands during our plane ride home, Caleb and I took turns coming up with what we’re sure will be Frequently Asked Questions and drafting some responses.

Q (Katie): So, how was Rwanda?

A (Caleb): I get that you don’t think that’s a loaded question.  It sounds like, “How was Florida?”  But the right answer to that question is, “It was great!  And how was YOUR spring break?”  But we just spent 5 months immersing ourselves in a new culture in a new part of the world with our 3 kids.  So, to me, the question sounds more like, “How was childhood?”  You get that you’ve just asked a BIG question.  So… what kind of answer are you looking for?  Option 1: “Rwanda was great.”  Option 2: “Read the blog.”  Option 3: “It was an absolutely incredible experience, with lots of complicated emotions that we’re still processing. In short, we set out on this adventure with some really generic hopes & plans, and I think we had a lot of successes.  There are so many unknowns still, today, but I think our kids ended up with a really positive experience that will open up their minds and hearts to the world.  There’s not one ounce of my body that regrets our decision to take this trip. We’re excited to keep thinking about it and sharing more as we go.  Thanks for asking.”

 

Q (Caleb): What was your favorite part?

A (Katie):

Version 1 [Too snarky]: I’m not sure.  That’s like asking me who’s my favorite child.

Version 2 [Simple brush-off answer]: The gorillas.

Version 3 [Simple but true]: Meeting people.

Version 4 [More complete]: My favorite part was being there long enough to collect a whole bunch of different moments that add up to an entire, complex, deep, life-changing experience.  There are so many wonderful memories: going on safaris, driving through the country and seeing so many breathtakingly beautiful hilly, tropical landscapes, watching our kids engage with their school community and making friends, spending time with our neighborhood kids, meeting so many different people from all walks of life.  I’m grateful for all of the parts and I think there are many that will be my “favorite” at different times as we look back on all of it. 

 

Q (Katie): What was the biggest surprise?

A (Caleb): Golfing?  I mean, I brought golf clubs all the way to Rwanda so golfing wasn’t a surprise.  But I think my plan was to golf on Wed mornings as some sort of escape from the reality and difficulties of our trip, a chance for me to treat myself to something fun after 4 hr middle of the night council meetings.  One of my concerns, though, was that I didn’t really want to meet other golfers, because golfers are the worst.  But what ended up happening for me is that I made lots of friends by joining random groups and playing with different people each week.  Eventually, no one was random anymore – we were scheduling times to golf together.  What I started to realize over time was that these moments on the golf course were not an escape from Rwanda – they were absolutely another immersion into another part of Rwanda.  I think I expected all the golfers to be like me – white expats.  But it was actually a sweet community composed of mostly well-off Rwandans.  I was happy to meet people from that walk of life as well – it helped me to better understand the complexities and injustices and possibilities contained in this place.  True story: the Kigali Golf Club hosted its first two fundraising tournaments (one for mothers of the genocide and one for victims of the May floods) while I was there, and I was given some credit for that because I approached the director about the concept of a “Golfers Who Give” tournament.  So the surprise is that what was intended to be an escape turned out to be a deeper connection with the complex community we were living in.

 

Q (Caleb): Oh my god, were you SO excited to come home?  You must have been DYING to get back!

A (Katie): There was definitely so much I missed and was excited to come home to… friends and family, my comfortable home, my kitchen, good lighting.  I was excited to work normal hours and see co-workers in person instead of spending hours on Zoom every night.  I was excited to be back where I felt like I belonged and had a shared history with people.  That’s one of the benefits of this type of experience – helping to appreciate what we have and to affirm what we value.  But it was also hard to come back, and there were a lot of things I was nervous about returning to.  It was really wonderful to mostly ignore US politics for a while, for example.  Our pace of life also slowed down in a lot of ways – Caleb and I got to spend a lot of time together during the day when the kids were at school and we weren’t working, which was really wonderful, and we had tons of family time and adventures on the weekends.  I’d like to figure out how not to go back to being completely overscheduled all of the time, and how to make more time to just be with all of the people I love.  So yes, I was excited to come home, but I also want to be thoughtful about how we come home and re-shape our lives back here.

 

Q (Katie): What’s one thing they have in Rwanda that you wish we had here?

A (Caleb):

Version 1: Chili sauce and toothpicks.  Wait, that’s two things.

Version 2: Gorillas.  I want to say wildlife, but obviously CO has wildlife too.  But it wasn’t just the gorillas.  It was the elephants and rhinos and hippos and zebras – so much diversity of wildlife that I’ve never seen outside of captivity.  So, to be fair, I’m excited for Anaclet to come to Colorado to show him all of our beautiful nature and wildlife.  But my time with those special animals in Africa is something I’ll never forget.

 

Q (Caleb): What’s the food like in Rwanda?

A (Katie): In general, Rwandan food is pretty simple stuff – not a big foodie culture.  Some very common things are brochettes (meat skewers), with goat being the most traditional/cheapest option and chips/French fries (they do these really well – crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside).  Also common street foods: samosas (beef or vegetable) and chapati (kind of like a very thick & oily tortilla).  Another big highlight is the fruit: bananas, mangoes, pineapple, and passionfruit are all very common.  Those are the basics.  At the same time, Kigali has a TON of very diverse and very good restaurants with all types of cuisines from around the world.  We ate out a LOT and some of our favorite places were Khana Khazana (Indian), Brachetto and Sole Luna (Italian), Sakae (Korean/Japanese), Kultura (Asian Fusion), Meze Fresh (Mexican), and Pili Pili (Rwandan + pizzas and a variety of other stuff).  In addition to the yummy food, most of these restaurants had lovely outdoor patios with beautiful views thanks to Kigali’s many hills, so we really enjoyed our eating experiences while we were there.  Cooking at home was something I never really got completely comfortable with – I really love cooking at home, but both our kitchen/stove options and limitations on the ingredients we could get made it hard to come up with a set of things to cook that everyone would enjoy.  Potato soup was one thing that was easy and a big hit.  I made tortillas and beans from scratch early on too – that was fun.  But I kind of wish I’d figured out how to do more with all of the fresh and less familiar stuff that was there, like these tiny green eggplants… Ok, now I’m rambling.  What was the question?

 

Q (Katie): If you could do this trip over, what would you do differently?  Or: what advice would you give your pre-Rwanda self about how to do this trip?

A (Caleb): I don’t really live this way.  I'm really happy with our trip and everything we learned from it, and if we'd done it differently that would have been different.  One thought we've had is that it would have been good to hire a translator earlier so we could have better conversations and connect with people earlier on.  But also, it was interesting to connect with people without language.  That was an important part of our experience.

Here's a different way to think about this.  If we were to do a trip like this again, what might we do differently next time?  Some things I've thought about are things that might have helped us be less confused upon arrival.  Like, we could fly there and check things out ahead of time to scout things out, figure out where to live, etc.  But again, all of that navigating was part of the experience.

Maybe we could have leaned into hiring people and paying for services available.  Most people in our position had drivers, cooks, nannies... it felt really bougie and we didn't fully embrace it, but it's an important part of the economy, employing people.  So maybe we could have done more of that.  

I haven't come up with anything yet that I can really point to as something that I would have done differently.  It was what it was and I'm really happy with the experience.

Home!

We did it. We made it back home. So so sleepy. Goodnight!

More about the Leaving Part

It’s 4:35am in both Kigali & Brussels, and we’re somewhere in between the two.  Over the Mediterranean, just north of Algeria, with a little less than 2 hrs until touchdown.  I slept for about 3.5 hrs.  Caleb, Athena, and Mazie are out now.  Lexi’s awake.  Taking some time to record the narrative of our departure.

Between the Sunday Block Party and the Thursday Green Hills and adult friend dinner farewells, we had a Wednesday afterschool gathering at Pili Pili with two of Athena’s friends (Tony & Jafet) and 6 of Lexi’s (Sophia, Ola, Hadrian, Tapuwa, Daniella, Raina).  They all had a great time playing football and swimming and eating pizza.  So wonderful to see the lovely friendships that blossomed for both of them – everything I could have hoped for at the start of our trip. 

On Friday, Caleb, Athena, and Mazie got up at 6am to watch a recording of the Nuggets-Heat Game 1 in the NBA Finals, and then Mazie went to school (her choice) while the other kids and Caleb and I spent the day packing.  A big job after 5 months here.  We got through most of it by the end of the day, pausing to have lunch at Taboo.  Kevine came over for a bit in the afternoon to help.  Around 5:30 we headed to Boho for a last family dinner.  

Around 7, Jeeya, Lena, and Jeeya’s dad Pravin picked Mazie up to go to a movie (The Little Mermaid) with several other friends.  (Pravin also brought Caleb a golf trophy… he’ll have to tell that story.) 

The power went out at the restaurant for a while after Mazie left… people improvised cellphone flashlight + liquid lanterns until the power came back on, we paid our bill, and headed home.  Caleb drove to pick Mazie and her friends up and captured some sweet photos of goodbye hugs at the end of the night.

On Saturday morning, everyone but Mazie got up for 9am breakfast at Casa Keza with Gisele and her kids.  From there we stopped by Kimironko market to pick up a couple of bags to finish packing… I said we ALMOST finished on Saturday.  Hadn’t quite managed to fit everything in to the available luggage.  So we had one last opportunity to navigate the chaos of the market and congratulate ourselves on how much we’ve learned… in and out in 10 minutes (including a quick run to the ATM) with reasonably priced items.

Got home a little before noon and finished packing, and then Caleb took Mazie to have one last coffee date with Lena while Lexi, Athena, and I made little cards for all of the neighbor kids.  Our flight was at 8 pm and then plan was to leave our house around 4:30.  At about 3:15, I remembered that Caleb had dropped off a jumpsuit of mine at the Rwanda Clothing Company to get tailored.  (If you watched a video of me dancing at the block party, you may notice that I couldn’t raise my arms very much due to the sleeve design, so I wanted to get that fixed.)  Caleb was on his way back from picking up Mazie and our rental car was getting picked up at the house, so I jumped on a moto and rode about 15-20 min each way to pick up my goods.

I got back to our street at 4:10 – Lambert picked me up in his car as I was walking from the main road where the moto dropped me off.  Anaclet had already arrive at the house in his safari vehicle (Ingagi) and we finished loading luggage into the two cars.  And then it was time for final goodbyes with our neighbors.  We had written cards in English to Theo and Violette and Anaclet wrote out the Kinyarwanda translations.  We gave them cards and several big hugs, and then gathered with neighbors in the driveway – maybe 5-7 mamas and most of “our” close kid friends.  The kids gathered around us and we gave a little speech, with translation help and videography from Anaclet.  The cards the kids and I made for each kid said:

On one side: You are PERFECT.  We LOVE you!

On the other: Muri beza. TURABAKUNDA!

We all signed our names on the bottom.  Our goodbye speech followed that theme.  [I'll figure out how to get Anaclet's video and add it here.]

I love all of the kiddos, but this little Isimbi found a special place in my heart.

More big hugs for all of the kids and mamas, and now the tears were really flowing among the mamas and a couple of the older kids and Caleb and I, while the younger kids mostly seemed puzzled by all the adult tears.  Once all the hugs were given, we loaded up in the two vehicles and drove to Question Coffee for one final visit.  

Kevine was working, along with several other employees we’ve gotten to know.  We gave the whole staff a postcard from Colorado (thanks for bringing those, Ahya!) with a note thanking them for taking such good care of us since we arrived.  As we were about to leave, they all came out and presented us with a small gift box (coasters & a travel mug), thanking us for our kindness and telling us they’d miss us.  And then it was time to head to the airport!  Kevine came along, and our two cars made their way through an elaborate security check (requiring the removal of all approx. 1100 items of luggage from the cars for inspection) to the dropoff.  One more round of hugs for Lambert, Anaclet, and Kevine, and that was that.  Goodbye to Kigali.

The sun is rising and this photo is also a selfie.

We’re about 35 min from Brussels now.  A few sleepy thoughts.  There will be lots of processing and reflecting on this whole Rwanda thing over the days/weeks/months to come.  I think the most obvious thing that sticks with me right now is how deeply happy I am with the connections we made.  Each one of us, in our separate and shared ways, put down some real roots and opened ourselves up to friendships in ways that I’d hoped for but couldn’t fully picture… from the bold and open 8 yr old, to the strong-willed and proud 11 yr old, to the skeptical and independent teenager, to the researcher who has tended to keep more emotional distance in these environments, to the curious and heart-forward entrepreneur.  That made it hard to leave, and I'm so grateful for that.  Part of our dealing with that hardness has been telling ourselves and everyone that we'll be coming back, and I'm sure we will, but it also kind of feels like telling ourselves, "It's ok, we'll get a new pet!" after a pet dies.  It might be true, but it's not really the point.  I want to allow space for this sadness at what has just ended, to just hold and look at the beauty of that thing before moving on to the next.

...

Wrapped up and posted this from our Brussels hotel room - made it here around 9:45 am after making it through customs and taking the wrong train from the airport... we're here for the day, fly to Munich tonight, and then fly to Denver from there tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.  We'll save this European stopover for another chapter.