Departing for Africa on August 3rd

As I write this on July 27th, I note that one week from now we will be on a plane headed for Amsterdam, from whence we will proceed to Kigali in Rwanda.  A few weeks ago we moved from our garden apartment to a room in the house of a friend.  Most of our stuff is gone, and we are near to completing the process of winnowing our possessions to what we will be packing. 

While it seems, from one perspective, that we are moving to another continent with much less "stuff" than we have had in the past, I am reminded of the many refuges that have fled from one country to another with no more than they can carry on their backs.  Some of what we will be bringing could be classified as "tools for service," including text books, computers, pens and pencils, and the like, but most are things for our own use, including clothing (how many outfits does one really need?), some things for the kitchen (we hear that a good set of kitchen knives is hard to come by) and a year's supply of our vitamins, prescriptions, and toiletries (also hard to obtain in Rwanda.) There is a Yahoo Group for the participants in the health project for which Anne will be working, and the posts therein include lists of "things I wish I had brought," and, "things I am glad I brought." Some of the items listed seem to be mere personal preference, but others have caused us to take notice and plan to make room.  I don't recall any list of "things I should have left behind!" 

In the last several weeks we have undergone other transformations besides the reduction in our material possessions.  Some have been occurring in our relationships:  both between Anne and me and between each of us and the rest of reality.  We have been working on being more unified through improved communication, greater patience, and more practice at teamwork.  I have particularly become aware of the times when I have a choice of how to respond to situations: either with a "knee jerk" emotional response, or with a more detached and rational response.  (The latter usually has a better outcome, while the former is more likely when I have not been on stage for a long time.  Theater of some sort is definitely on my list of things to do in Rwanda.) 

We have said many farewells, and are grateful for so many good friends and close family.  Soon, we will have new friends and a new Baha'i family in a whole new part of the world. 

Preparing to go to Rwanda

Last February my wife, Anne, and I moved from a loft apartment near downtown Aurora to a garden apartment on the east side of Aurora, near Naperville.  Because we were moving to an  apartment that is smaller and has less storage space than the previous one, we got rid of a lot of our stuff.  Papers, photos, books, clothing, toys, even some furniture were sold, given away, recycled, or trashed.  When we had moved everything in, I suggested to Anne, "Let's pretend that we are getting ready to move to another country.  What things would we actually bring with us?  What is important enough to us that we would store it in Aurora?  What would we sell, give away,  recycle, or trash from the stuff that we still have?"  We didn't actually do this exercise, but the thought of it did help to prepare us for where we are now:

It came up suddenly last Friday when Anne received an email telling her that she had been accepted to a program in the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and had been given an appointment in a hospital in Rwanda mentoring midwives.  She had applied many months ago and had thought that she was not going to hear anything back.  Now it looks like she is expected to arrive in time for orientation beginning on August 1st.  We have lots of stuff to go through and divest ourselves of!

We have begun to count down the days and list all of the things that we need to do to prepare.  The program will also pay to fly me out and the salary and per Diem are sufficient for both of us.  I will likely find work teaching English, as Rwanda is moving towards all its citizens learning English.  in the meantime, I will probably have to drop out of the play I was just cast in (Egeon in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors) which is a downer for me, since I haven't been on stage since last summer and working with Midsummer Theater Troupe was one of the most enjoyable gigs I have had in a long time.  But I have hopes of doing some sort of acting in Rwanda.  Mostly, I am excited (and nervous) about experiencing a whole new cultural reality.

A final  thought for this evening:  Monday I went to work after getting too little sleep.  I found that I was irritable and prone to being critical of anyone or anything that inconvenienced me.  "Whoa!" I thought, "If a little sleep deprivation can put me out of sorts this much, how do I expect to deal with culture shock and all that I will face in Rwanda?"  So now I am working on a more spiritual way of being:  What ever another person does, I need to refrain from judging them or their actions.  Instead of responding out of my criticism of their actions or of them, I need practice following the principles that I have been striving to learn:  patience, empathy, loving-kindness, and a willingness to learn from whatever life throws at me.