Dad's Last Day in Africa

So after 5 weeks together here in Africa, its Luc’s Dad’s last day with us here in Africa. It’s been great having his fresh perspective here to remind us about all the wonderful things that just seem normal to us now. As a retired teacher of 40 years, Pepe made some interesting reflections on our school life, like how interested everyone is in our lives and wellbeing and how much effort our students put into attending school well bathed and in clean clothes, even if they have to wear the same uniform everyday and have to walk down to the dam to take a bath. Even though he doesn’t speak Portuguese he’s been able to communicate well using his Spanish. Also our Padre from Chile and one of our teachers who studied in Cuba can both speak Spanish and a few of our colleagues and friends from the generation that lived in refugee camps in Malawi can communicate in English. We’ll miss Pepe a lot: Janet will no longer have a drinking partner to share her sundowner beer and we will definitely be thinking of him when we snack on the queso Manchego and jamón Serrano he left us. Africa still had a couple of surprises for Dad, like our last bus breaking down in the gas station on our way to the airport leaving us to scramble out the emergency exit in a frenetic free-for-all to get seats on the next bus. But sometimes Mama Africa throws in good surprises too, like a half flat of strawberries for $2.50 available on the street corner when we hadn’t even realized it was strawberry season.

We’ve basically had family visitors since July 4th, so after Pepe leaves it will be our first time with our little house to ourselves in over two months. Hopefully we won't feel lonely!