back in MI

i'm safely back in MI. my flights were all smooth, and they seemed to go quick. even the 12 hr flight! I slept a good bit on the flights, and even though my suitcase came open...i didn't lose anything.

if i had to pick one word to describe leaving india it would definitely be "surreal." that last week, i just kept saying that over and over - this doesn't seem real...almost as if i was observing what what going on...it just didn't seem to connect - the deep reality that i was really leaving these people that i've come to love so much.

Tuesday was a rough day. it was beautiful and hard saying goodbye to the katuns. leaving prem don. and saying goodbye to my Sari Bari friends. this hard emotional day...and then our debriefing retreat - which was so good. we stayed at a country club in south kolkata...in so many ways it seemed like we'd actually left the city. at one point i asked beth, "do you take us here so we're not so shocked when we get back to America" and she said yes. We played, we just vegged, we hung out and told stories, we laughed a lot - and we "debriefed." it was good. I told beth that i felt really "full" after that time. Like it was okay for me to come back...that i was "prepared" to come. i'm so thankful for that time together...afterwards, i felt capable of leaving kolkata - and i don't think i felt that before.

once when karli and i were talking she said that she felt like from June to August she'll change just as much as she did in her time in India - that being away was a part of the process - and that coming home is a necessary continuation of it...and i think she's right. i feel like i have more to learn and "glean" from my experience in these next months at home, as i "process" my time away. So...i plan to keep posting. i don't know how often...but i know i still have lots of stories that i never got to blog while i was in India - so much was happening. And i know that i'll have more stories to tell as God continues to reveal Himself in the midst of my transition home.

for now, being home is a really strange combination of weird and normal. in someways i'm surprised how normal it feels to be here...to drive, clear roads (without hundreds of other cars, or endless honking), to see plants and trees, to throw my laundry in the washing machine and walk away, only to come back a bit later and find it clean and ready to toss in the dryer, to walk to the fridge and grab whatever food i want to eat...to find the fridge full, cold water, to sit around the table and talk with my mom and sisters...things that are all so normal - and yet its also a be weird to be here. Last night i laid in bed trying to fall asleep with the sound of silence ringing in my ears. I haven't slept in silence in so long...how can one place be so natural, and so strange at the same time?