It's Good to Be Back, But...

As I step off the plane and make my way down the steps, the heat and humidity wash over me, it finally hits… I’m back in Mozambique. I continue to walk from the plane to the entrance marked “International Arrivals,” I look up. Standing in the second floor window, I see Nunu. I smile, wave and feel the tears creep up behind my eyes. I have to look down. The last thing I need to do is go through customs with tears running down my face.

I make it though customs and bag checks without much incident. The bag checker was curious about a few of my items; the main concern is people brining things in the country to sell without paying the import tax. Of all things, she asks about a pile of pencils. There are maybe 40 of them, Nunu tells her they are for kids. I stand there thinking to myself, “Does she think I’ve come to make millions off of selling these pencils, I’d be lucky to sell them all for $10!”

It’s good to be back, but it’s more overwhelming than I had imagined. I’m having to take more time to adjust emotionally and to the pace of life. The biggest adjustment is that the last month or so in the states has been non-stop and the speed of my life didn’t gradually slow down… it came to a screeching halt!

Arriving here I feel helpless in so many ways. For five months I’ve been in the states, sharing stories and vision of what we plan to do. Now I’m here and I just want to hit the ground running, but that’s not how things work. I have to get back into the Mozambique mindset.

I have to rely on Nunu for just about everything; he is the one who will contact the electrical company; he will run to the store to buy food for dinner; he will… he will… he will…  You get the point. I don’t have a problem relying on Nunu but it’s just a form of culture shock; rather than me running around like crazy, he is – and I’m sitting at our house basically doing nothing.

My first morning here, I thought I might explode waiting for Nunu to wake up. When he did wake up, the explosion happened. As we started talking, I found myself crying and not really sure why. Being the great husband he is, he reassured me and let the tears fall.

Each day we come up with a to do list for Nunu and I make myself as useful as possible. But let’s be real: I’ve mostly sat around pondering how hot it is and eating mangos. Or at least that is how it feels.

My first full day here some of Binti’s kids showed up bringing us water. I was sitting in a chair looking for the motivation to unpack my bags when I glanced over at the kids, one of them waved and with a huge smile on her face said “Hi friend.” It was exactly what I needed.

I couldn’t believe that she remembered that from 5 months ago. It was just the encouragement I needed in the moment; God is so good.

So I do what I can each day but really spend most of my time just taking it all in. Enjoying time with Nunu and being able to be excited together about the next steps for The Widow’s Might.