| Airports are always an interesting place to people-watch. It�s a place where it�s okay to let out your emotions. It�s almost expected that you do. People are crying, hugging together or crying alone. Where is their loved one going? Or you see people waiting in anticipation of someone�s returned and tears of joy are shed. People are laughing, calling out friends� names when a glimpse of them is seen through the exiting passengers. Where have they come back from and for how long were they gone? Then there are the people walking slowly through the terminals alone, without luggage, and you wonder who they have just seen off. When I traveled for work, I had trips once�sometimes twice�a month and I got so used to traveling alone. It did not really make me sad anymore to take the shuttle to and from the airport and not have anyone see me off or greet me. If I�m traveling for work, I don�t expect it to be like that. But if I�m traveling for other reasons, it�s nice to have someone else there. When I traveled alone, I enjoyed watching people interacting around me. I like listening to conversations, watching emotions so openly revealed on peoples� faces. Today as I leave Brazil, I anticipate a tearful goodbye at the airport. I anticipate a tearful farewell at the office. I arrived on July 3 and will be leaving today, December 17. It passed by so quickly, just as I expected, although 5 � months sounds like a lot of time. The saddest part about leaving is not knowing when I will see these people again. I feel like I�ve lived such a regular life here, that it�s like I�m being transplanted from home to another place. But in fact, I am going home. This past week, there have been moments when I want to cry when I think about how I will no longer be living here. No more walks to the bus stop and saying bom dia to the man who stands by the water plant. No more familiar bus driver faces. No more bom dias from Solimar at the front desk or greetings from the cook who notices if I don�t take my regular morning bread and coffee. No more strolls around the Sepal �houses� to see what people are up to. No more post-lunch walks to McDonald�s for �casquinhas.� So many �no mores.� I know time will heal it all�and what I need to focus on is how fortunate I am to have had this experience here. What God wants me to do is to take all my lessons here, take the experience, and share it with others back at home. Share about what He did in my life, share about the missionaries and the work of Sepal, and pray about how I can use this experience in my future steps and decisions. I am also so blessed with the new friends and family that I made here and only hope that these will be lasting relationships that will one day be reunited, if not here on earth, than in heaven. I know that the world is a small place, but at times like this, it doesn�t feel small enough. But when I land tomorrow morning in the beautiful city of San Francisco, I will have a family waiting there for me with open arms. California, get ready for landing� |
| coming in for landing 12.17.02 |
 |