Leaving

(Stuff and the chaos of leaving.)

We've been in the process of leaving Mozambique for several weeks now to go on a 6 month furlough in Canada and the US.

Preparing for one's absence in one place so work can carry on as smoothly as possible while preparing for one's arrival in another makes for some very busy times. There have been many meetings, email writing, job description detailing, photo/video taking/editing, schedule/transport planning, govt/legal paper work wrapping up (as much as possible) on a number of fronts, and so on.

Generally, just organizing stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. And so it seemed like the logical time to do my spring cleaning and organize my entire house too, including medical supplies(!).

The bottles of medicine are for treating microscopic bugs.
The can of DOOM, for treating bigger bugs.

Which leads me to tell you how I dealt with last week's discovery of a big, thick spider web in some stored linen (see previous post).

First, I ignored it for a few days. I was either procrastinating or just too busy with other stuff. I kind of figured Spidey wasn't going anywhere far with such a plush home anyway.

But when all my other work was done, I had to deal with him. I (smartly and) off-handedly mentioned the situation to my husband who dutifully headed straight into the storage room and pulled Spidey's newly claimed (aka OUR) bedding onto the wide open floor and opened it up. At that, Spidey started jumping and scurrying about wildly like I thought he would. But I had my mini-vacuum ready in hand and, um, "air lifted" him to the safety of the outdoors. And that was the end of that saga.

It is not logical to take on mini-construction projects while preparing to leave on a big trip, but we decided to do that too. Tiling needed to be done around the kitchen sink and newly placed curtain rods needed to be secured. Oh, and curtains for the mission office needed to be cut and made ready for hemming too. With all that taking place in my kitchen over several days, finding an appropriate spot to put the dish rack became quite an adventure.

In the end, it all came together and we said our farewells.

Last missionary staff meeting before leaving: left to right
Dwight, me, Joao, Leila, Tony, Heather, Rick, Alta, Francois, Ron,
Allan (Mercy Air SA director)
Front: Tendai and Barb

Our leaving coincided with a long-time staff member having to go for emergency surgery.
Seems like a bad time to leave, but I know he's in good hands.
(thanks for the photo, Heather.)

Before we knew it, we were off flying south.

Odd photo taken from the cockpit with my cellphone.
I assume the black lines must be the prop?

We were on a tight schedule on our way down (because we always are, but this time because of weather), but got delayed at Vilankulo Airport. They were having power troubles and we had to wait for their electricity to be reconnected so we could fuel up.

We weren't sure how long our delay would be, but either way, we had a bit of time to kill at the brand spanking new airport. Air conditioned with white, shiny marble floors and restaurant inside instead of outside in the hot wind. Wow.

Here's what it used to look like:

What we feared may be an overnight stay turned into just a 2 hour delay, so we got to leave shortly after lunch. Here we are, wind-swept on the tarmac. We look a tad excited. :) That's because we'll be seeing our kids and family soon.

We're now in South Africa, still in the process of leaving, but enjoying our last bit of summer before we hit the land of cold, snow, and ice.

We will be traveling the width and breadth of north America sharing about the the needs and wonderful things happening in Mozambique between January and July. If you want to get together with us at some point, please email us at dwight.lagore@gmail.com.