An Almost-Final Blog

Mark and I had every intention of writing ‘final’ blogs last week, to share some of our insights and lessons learned while in Mozambique.

Lesson 1: We are much busier in the U.S. than we were in Mozambique!

Parting with Mozambique and the people we met there was bittersweet, and to be honest, returning to the U.S. was bittersweet as well. The sweet part of returning had to do with people. Our niece and nephew seemed to have grown in leaps and bounds in the six weeks while we were away, and we were anxious to see them. (And the rest of our family and friends, too, of course.)

The bitter part of returning also had to do with people, and an experience we had in the O’Hare airport in Chicago sums it up pretty well. We had just disembarked from the airplane and had followed the maze of hallways along with hoards of other people toting carry-ons. When we came to the Passport Control area, the U.S. citizens were weeded out from the non-U.S. citizens. Those of us with U.S. passports were herded into one long winding line, while everyone with non-U.S. passports were herded into another long winding line. This was our first experience of being surrounded completely by Americans in over six weeks.

We were standing in line, not talking (remember, we’d been traveling for about 50 hours at this point), when we were startled by a commotion in front of us. We heard the high-pitched sound of women yelling and then a phrase we understood: “We’ve been waiting in line longer than he has!”

The Passport Control attendant, who had been ushering people to officers at desks as they came available, was staring wide-eyed at a group of three ladies who were waiting in line in front of the first desk. A young man with a backpack stood awkwardly next to her, obviously trying to decide whether to continue to the passport control desk that he had been motioned toward or to wait.

We realized that the angry women had been waiting in line behind someone who was having some difficulties clearing passport control and had to fill out an additional form. The women were glaring at the attendant in self-righteous indignation. The attendant shook her head and, still wide-eyed, led the fuming women to a new desk, while the young man with the backpack slunk back into the line to wait.

Mark started humming “I’m Proud to be an American,” under his breath, and I was reminded that, yes, there are many good things to come home to. Like family. And drinking water straight from the faucet. And whole wheat bread flour. And grocery carts in grocery stores. But there are also many… challenging things to come home to as well. American culture is not perfect, by a long shot!

Before we left for Mozambique, we were give eight questions to consider and mull over while on our trip. All of the questions were good to think about, but some were more helpful in processing through my feelings about the trip than others. I’d like to share just a few of my responses with you in my next two blogs. Watch for those posts!

--Hillary