We officially have less than two weeks left in Tsumeb! We've had our last lessons, last after school club meetings, and last Sunday service (except for the Christmas program this coming Sunday). We have not yet done our last load of hand-washed laundry (unfortunately), marked our last exams (still in the midst of that), or mopped our house for the last time. Our closets have been emptied of all the clothes we are leaving here and all the winter things we'll need when we get home. We've been lucky enough to see a hopeful start to rainy season - it's at least sprinkled every day this week! We've seen Group 38 get settled in, and most volunteers from our group (34) go back to America. It'll be our turn very soon!
We still have a lot of goodbyes to say. It's particularly tough to say goodbye to some of our favorite learners as we know it will be difficult, if not impossible, to keep in touch with them. Very few kids have access to internet and email, and many don't even have a postal address. We're leaving them just before their all-important grade 10 year, and kind of wishing we could carry them through it (but also feeling like it's time to come home).
We'll be leaving Tsumeb on Sunday, December 1st, and then staying in Windhoek for a few days to take care of administrative odds and ends. On December 5th we fly to Dhaka, Bangladesh to visit Dylan's dad, and then a week later we go on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where we'll spend Christmas with Dylan's whole family. We'll touch down in the wintry midwest to stay with my mom and dad on December 29!
We're well on our way to finishing our grad school applications and hope to come back to the US with those completely done and out of the way. We have a couple projects in mind for our 4 month stay in Indiana - some self-study (statistics and calculus for me, computer programming for Dylan), some travel (to visit siblings and friends), lots of exercise (to avoid gaining weight from all the amazing food). We're well aware that this might be the last time in our lives that we have such a lengthy period of free time - until we're retired I guess. =)
For these next two weeks you can think of us marking, cleaning, and sorting stuff! Pray that we say our goodbyes well.
We still have a lot of goodbyes to say. It's particularly tough to say goodbye to some of our favorite learners as we know it will be difficult, if not impossible, to keep in touch with them. Very few kids have access to internet and email, and many don't even have a postal address. We're leaving them just before their all-important grade 10 year, and kind of wishing we could carry them through it (but also feeling like it's time to come home).
We'll be leaving Tsumeb on Sunday, December 1st, and then staying in Windhoek for a few days to take care of administrative odds and ends. On December 5th we fly to Dhaka, Bangladesh to visit Dylan's dad, and then a week later we go on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where we'll spend Christmas with Dylan's whole family. We'll touch down in the wintry midwest to stay with my mom and dad on December 29!
We're well on our way to finishing our grad school applications and hope to come back to the US with those completely done and out of the way. We have a couple projects in mind for our 4 month stay in Indiana - some self-study (statistics and calculus for me, computer programming for Dylan), some travel (to visit siblings and friends), lots of exercise (to avoid gaining weight from all the amazing food). We're well aware that this might be the last time in our lives that we have such a lengthy period of free time - until we're retired I guess. =)
For these next two weeks you can think of us marking, cleaning, and sorting stuff! Pray that we say our goodbyes well.