It is June...
I've been waiting for June all year long! This is the month of potential "winter" weather. Tonight, my toes are chilly for the first time since I was in Cape Town back in December! Only a person raised in the NORTH and living in an extremely tropical area (at low altitude) can really understand our craving for cool weather. We glow with glee when the thermometer drops below 80F/28C... Tonight it is even lower than that after a sprinkling of rain. I had a cup of tea in the middle of the day!
But this year June brings another joy... we are going 'HOME'! Our three-and-a-half year term is coming to an end. We have booked our tickets and are packing and finishing and selling and giving away. Everything in the house is categorized: give away, throw away, sell, ship, save, maybe. The "maybe" category is hacked away by necessity. The "keep in Tete storage" is an easy default. "Give away" becomes easier as the days go on... the burden of "stuff" is just less attractive with each box filled and sealed and inventoried for reference. Some keepsakes are making their way home with us this year. Things we've lived with in Africa for a decade begin an exodus to America or Sweden. (we probably have only 1 or two more trips in that direction.) Wooden carvings and a hippo tea set are boxed and standing ready for their first trip overseas. We've gone from 14 boxes of books down to about 5 now! Partly because some will actually stay on the shelf, but many find a new home.
It isn't sad. It is work. It is sentimental. And I wonder... if I had none of these things in my new home... or when I return here... or to remember this place by... would it matter? I touch each piece as I decide. Would I miss this? Will I remember what I've saved, discarded or given away? I close another box. I hand over another bag of used useful things.
One day I'll find out... maybe in July... 2013!
But this year June brings another joy... we are going 'HOME'! Our three-and-a-half year term is coming to an end. We have booked our tickets and are packing and finishing and selling and giving away. Everything in the house is categorized: give away, throw away, sell, ship, save, maybe. The "maybe" category is hacked away by necessity. The "keep in Tete storage" is an easy default. "Give away" becomes easier as the days go on... the burden of "stuff" is just less attractive with each box filled and sealed and inventoried for reference. Some keepsakes are making their way home with us this year. Things we've lived with in Africa for a decade begin an exodus to America or Sweden. (we probably have only 1 or two more trips in that direction.) Wooden carvings and a hippo tea set are boxed and standing ready for their first trip overseas. We've gone from 14 boxes of books down to about 5 now! Partly because some will actually stay on the shelf, but many find a new home.
It isn't sad. It is work. It is sentimental. And I wonder... if I had none of these things in my new home... or when I return here... or to remember this place by... would it matter? I touch each piece as I decide. Would I miss this? Will I remember what I've saved, discarded or given away? I close another box. I hand over another bag of used useful things.
One day I'll find out... maybe in July... 2013!
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