gotta learn to let me go over the rainbow

In less than a week, I will be moving back to Madrid. For me, a five week trip feels like a long vacation, but for others, five weeks is moving. So I will settle with somewhere in between. As I get ready to go back to Madrid, I find myself lost in a sea of thoughts about where I was when I left that city and who I was, what I was looking forward to, what I was leaving behind.

So much of my life in Madrid was like a fairy tale. I was living out a dream to live abroad. I was speaking a language I love. I met incredible people. I was traveling all the time. But I also didn't feel fulfilled. I hated the feeling that my most unique skills and passions weren't at work. I was acutely aware that that life wasn't real life. But for me, Madrid is a very special place. I left a large chunk of my heart there.  I have to agree with Amos Lee, we all need a place that we can go and feel over the rainbow. One of those places for me is most certainly Madrid.

I am filled with energy, excitement and enthusiasm about returning. I will live with my old roommate in our old neighborhood. I will see all of my closest friends many of whom have left Madrid but will be returning for a special reunion in July. I feel unbelievably blessed to be able to go back. It's like the stars have aligned. I'm speechless to think about it all coming together. It's no longer a plan or an idea, its real. I am returning to one of my favorite cities. I cannot believe that I get to show Brian another piece of my heart. In Spanish, that last sentence would translate into a verb that actually really means "teach." I will teach him about that piece of my heart, teach him about that place that I called home, that city that taught me. In just six days, I will be roaming my favorite old streets, eating favorite foods and... it's overwhelming all of my senses.

"Well I walked over the bridge, into the city where I lived and I saw my old landlord. 

We both said hello, and there was no where left to go cause his rent I couldn't afford

Well, relationships change 

and I think it's kinda strange how money makes a man grow

but the people on the street, on buses and on feet - we all got the same blood flow. 

we all need a place that we can go and feel over the rainbow!

sometimes, we forget what we got, who we are and who we are not. 

I'm in love with a girl who's in love with the world

though I can't help but follow

though I know that someday she is bound to go away and stay over the rainbow

gotta learn to let her go over the rainbow."

-Amos Lee, Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight 

 

Two Muzungus I couldn't have done without

My Favorite People II

The first person I must talk about is, my housemate and companion 24/7, Carmen. To most people we interact with, it is shocking that Carmen and I just met. In fact, about 60 days ago, we were complete strangers. Now, we could write the other's autobiography. Carmen claims Ohio as home, but she also grew up as a missionary kid in Costa Rica and Venezuela. She has been an absolute delight to get to know and to spend time with. As we work together, live together and walk everywhere, we spend almost every waking moment of the day together. Not only have I never wanted to kill her, but I have never even been annoyed with Carmen in the slightest. This is remarkable considering how annoying I know I can be. Seriously, Carmen has a huge heart for the world, a strong and beautiful burning spirit for Christ and is incredibly dedicated to being great at whatever she does (which she does effortlessly). Clearly she and her fiance are guided by God because they are getting married just seven days after we get back to the United States. For this alone, she may be a bit crazy, but she is just crazy about following the call to do good work, which is exactly what she's been doing in Rwanda. I am amazed by her zeal, her ability to laugh at just about anything, the fact that she never complains, her intelligence, and the wonderful stories she has to tell. I think it's pretty cool that two very well traveled Spanish speakers ended up in Rwanda hanging out. Our first weeks in Rwanda all we did was exchange travel stories. Although we've both been to over twenty countries, we have only actually been to the same two or three countries, excluding Rwanda. I think that's pretty remarkable! I am pleased that I will be her last roommate before she is married, and I hope that she would say the same about me. What a bright future lies ahead of her, I can't wait to see where she ends up and whether or not she will hire me. ;) If we hadn't gotten along, my summer would have been tremendously miserable. But because we got along so well, my summer was greatly enhanced.

Shelley - Shelley left Rwanda two weeks ago but we miss her so much that it feels like she's been gone a month. Shelley first really amazed me in the big market called Kimironko. We were trying to decide how much we should pay for a pineapple. She picked it up, said about how much she guessed it weighed in pounds, stated about what the average price per pound of pineapple is in the US, converted pounds to kilos and then converted the price per kilo to Rwandan Francs and then spit out a price that we should pay for the pineapple that would be reasonable. Maybe this is lost on you, but this amazed me. Not only do I not know the price of any single item in a grocery store, I certainly could not convert dollars and pounds in a few seconds and then use it as an effective negotiation tool to then haggle over the price of a pineapple in Kinyarwanda which none of us speak. Shelley is so many things that I am not. She's athletic, humble, incapable of sitting for more than five minutes, gracious, and patient. But like me, she is always hungry for a little adventure. Shelley arrived in Rwanda a few weeks before Carmen and I so her first weeks trials became our knowledge. I will always be grateful to her and Lauren for showing us the ropes of living in Kigali and for being our friends in a city when we had none. The icing on the cake of Shelley's awesomeness is her beautiful heart for God and her receptiveness to where He is leading her.  She always had us laughing and she was usually our fearless leader for any activity. At least once a day someone in the house says "I miss Shelley." I am already looking forward to us hanging out in Malibu in January!