Going Home

June has been a crazy and wonderful month! Two of my really good friends just got married, Christiana and Kat. Also my brother Keegan graduated from high school. All of these events took place within the same week, which was also the week of midterm break at my school. It was all such an incredible coincidence that I decided it was worth taking a trip home. Also the fact that my grandma Carlson was not doing so well tipped me over the edge of the decision to go home so I could see her.

It took me two full days to get to the airport here in Tanzania, then another 24 hours on planes and in airports, but I made it home on Monday June 8th. I spent exactly 9 days in America, and then started the arduous trip back to Songea. In total 5 days of traveling and 9 days in America, but it was worth it.

My parents and Keegan met me at the airport and the first thing we did was get lunch at Subway. All during the flight home I was thinking about all the food I couldn’t wait to eat, and submarine sandwiches were at the top of the list. Man they were good. I ate so much good food while I was home that I probably gained 10 pounds. But after a week of beans and rice I have lost it all again.

Just after I got home I found out that my grandma died a few days before. My parents decided to wait and tell me when I got home, which I think was good so that I could be with my family when I found out. It turned out that on the day that Kara and I were planning to visit our grandma, we ended up going to her funeral instead…kind of ironic. I am certainly sad that I didn’t get to see my grandma just before she died, but it was an incredible blessing to be able to go to her funeral. Amazingly every one of my grandma’s 20 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren were there at her funeral. It was wonderful to see everyone and spend one last night at my grandma’s house.

The weddings were beautiful and a lot of fun. At Christiana’s wedding I saw many friends from high school that I haven’t seen in a while, and I got to see a few really good friends from UPS at Kat’s Wedding in San Francisco. After Kat’s wedding Andrea, Shaun and I spent a fun day at Alcatraz and exploring the waterfront.

It was a wonderful trip home. The weather was gorgeous in Seattle (since when has that happened in June?); the cherries were ripe in my grandma’s orchards; and all my siblings were home. I couldn’t have asked for more, but it sure made it hard to come back to Tanzania. I felt pretty homesick the first couple of days, and even came down with a touch of culture shock. But now that I am back into the swing of things at school, I feel much better and have remembered that I also love it here in Songea.