My journey home (back to Mozambique)-- 5 days long

We left Friday Harbor on Friday, Christmas Eve. Late that night, in a hotel south of Seattle, I realized I had no idea where my tickets were. There was quite a saga of bag-searching, brain-wracking, favor-asking (Thank you Mo and Sue!!), and stress -- and the timing didn't help -- but eventually they were found and flown to Seattle where we got them on Sunday and got to SeaTac with an hour and a half to spare, or rather spend in the very long line. First the self-service machine wouldn't let me check my bags all the way to Mozambique (apparently it had never heard of Maputo), and then the agent didn't want to let me go at all. Apparently you must have a return flight. But I showed her my new fancy-dancy DIRE (my resident visa which looks like a passport) and that eventually convinced her that Mozambique really wouldn't mind if I showed up.

After that, things went pretty smoothly, considering the rocky start. I even got my bag in Maputo, which I figured I might not ever see again. And it didn't even fall apart until I pulled it off the conveyor belt. When I got home I opened it to see that someone had definitely gone through my bag. I didn't think this would be a problem, because all I was carrying was a bunch of books and chocolate chips and stuff like that. They luckily missed the significance of the 3rd season of West Wing DVDs that I splurged on, and as far as I know all that was missing was a small tin of Almond Joy 'Scoops' that I got in my stocking. And oddly enough, I gained a Leatherman. Yeah. And I was even wanting a Leatherman, and Paul (who knows about such things) says it looks new, too. So I came out ahead in the whole affair. Except for the bag which was my fault.

It's good to be home. (It was good to be home at the other home too. All my 'homes', in fact, up and down the Pacific Northwest. Thank you all who hung out with me.) It's hot here. So not much has changed."