The Journey Home

Three planes (Maputo -> Johannesburg -> Dubai -> LA) and 34 hours in transit finally brought me home to the U.S. of A...
My last few hours in Moz (which included being late to the airport, bribing a cop, having a problem with my visa, and getting harassed by airport personnel) sent me sprinting on to the plane, ready to get the hell out. Nonetheless, I cried when we took off and I got my last glimpses of Mozambique. I also cried when I re-read the poem one of my jovens wrote me, and when I opened the letter I'd written to myself two years ago the day I swore in as a Peace Corps volunteer, and when the U.S. immigration officer told me, "Welcome home, little lady!" and when the Customs official said, "Welcome home and thank you for your service" and when I hugged Kevin for the first time. Basically, I spent a lot of time crying. And I'm sure there will be plenty more times to come.
As the plane descended upon LA, all I kept thinking was how beautiful America is... the sky was amazingly blue, the Pacific Ocean so vast, the city so organized and developed with clear highways and tall buildings. Even from miles up in the air, you can see such a huge difference.Over Africa, the red sand and spaced out clusters of rusted tin roofs. Over Dubai, the endless sand dunes of the desert. Over LA, the city so gray and geometric. The cars on the freeway looked like ants zipping around the anthill. Everything is picture perfect, nothing is out of place, even the trees are manicured. I think the guy next to me on the plane was laughing at me because I pretty much had my nose pressed to the window pane until we were on the ground.
Seeing my fiancé Kevin was surreal; he had a bouquet of flowers for me and a shiny new iPhone which I wasted no time playing with. There was a moment in which I became very disoriented, when we got to the car and I realized the steering wheel wasn't on the right side. 
Aside from that, everything's been great so far. I do miss Mozambique but I'm still high on the euphoria of being home, eating tons of good food (last night: asparagus and spiced salmon tacos, and German apple cake and this morning: bacon and eggs, lox and everything bagels). Next week I'll be back in San Diego, where all I have on the agenda is unpacking and catching up with old friends. It'll be nice to just relax for a while and get used to the idea of being home.

"Well, congratulations. Parabens! Here opens a new chapter of your life just as today, in the past, a new chapter will open up as well. Here's to hoping that you and I are not complete strangers, that even if we are, one day far down the line we'll both see, that our struggles were made worthwhile and that everything turned out exactly the way it's supposed to be."
- In a letter to myself for the end of my Peace Corps service, written December 03, 2010