The past month has flown by in a flurry of work and social activity. I do have a tendency to procrastinate a bit, but it seems that everything has gone wrong or plans have changed so that I am overflowing with work in these last weeks. Now that my time here is short, all of a sudden my friends and colleagues want to hang out all the time or want me to teach them English, guitar chords, how to use a computer . . . I guess that’s how life goes.

An African proverb says that “It’s always agreeable to say welcome, and always disagreeable to say goodbye”. I don’t like endings either. It was easy in those rough moments of culture shock to think about wanting to be at home, but when it comes down to bidding farewell to people who will now be half a world away, whom I may never see again, it’s hard. My little brother probably won’t remember me.

I am always surprised by the human capacity for love. In times of stress or culture shock there were definitely people I had a hard time liking or working with. But when it comes down to “adeus”, I still want to bawl. No matter whether I really liked someone, the fact that they were a part of my life during this difficult year is grounds enough for love in my heart.

I’ve lost a lot spiritually this year, but the thing that strikes me most often here in Moz is God’s grace.

Schedules aligned so that I have had to do all my official despedidas early – with friends, at church, in the office. So now I’m in this weird space of having said goodbye in official ways, but I’m still running into most people.

I think it will be a while before I understand what impact this experience will have on my life. It will be a big one for sure – I can tell that I’ve changed a lot. So when you ask me “How was Mozambique?”, I don’t think I’ll be able to respond. It was thrilling. It was a process of continual learning. It was a challenge. It was loneliness. It was a lot of sickness. It was grace. It was learning to adapt to changes. It was life, up close and personal.

I'm going to miss Mozambique.