77. Coming Home

We really appreciated our time in Maputo.  The Peace Corps did a good job of providing extra-special accommodations for our last all-volunteer conference, and we enjoyed the good food and company. The sessions were useful and relevant.

This time, however, and more than ever before, we found it difficult to say goodbye.  Volunteers are scheduled to depart during six different weeks in November and December, and most of us won't reconnect until we're in the States.  Some of us, another volunteer pointed out, might never reconnect again.

xi! 

Our post-conference hugs were especially long and sniffly.

And so it was thus, with hugs and kisses and some dragging-of-the-feet, that Dan and I left the big city. We felt a confusing mix of emotions, heightened by heavy and deep-seated exhaustion.  Several consecutive late nights, paired with daily sessions and morning meetings, meant that both of us were very, very tired.

Even in our sleepy state, we returned to Zobue to find a yard full of happy and welcoming children.  We were surrounded by hundreds of smiles!  It was a nice homecoming on an otherwise complicated and emotional day.

The electricity flickered out as we entered the house, so we ate peanut butter sandwiches in the dark. It was not unlike our first-ever night in Zobue.  Quietly, and without fuss, we blew out the candles and went to sleep at 7 o'clock PM.

We've returned to life at site, for our last two months in Zobue.

Coming home (Tete Airport as seen from within the plane)