I've been here basically a month...or it will be on Saturday. The 4 week mark was yesterday (Wednesday). I''ve transitioned, I've made friends, life is good. So I was really surprised to be struck with such a wave of homesickness tonight.
I know the trigger...I called home. Now, this isn't the first time I've called home. But, the first time I called (using Scott's phone) I was passed around like a hot potato. I talked with a bunch of family for about 3 to 4 minutes each. Phone call ended, it was nice talking with them. The second time was this past Sunday...and I was calling from a van full of people and it was difficult to hear at times, and we couldn't really talk about much of anything, because I was surrounded, quite literally. Tonight, however, I applied bug spray (rather liberally), took my phone and a flashlight and started walking up. And by up I mean up the hill, and another hill...the hill is kind of never ending. I didn't go all the way to the top (which probably would have taken 20 minutes), but I went up until I saw that I had 2 bars of signal on my phone. So, with no one else around, and mostly protected from the wildlife (and by that I mean the insects), I called home.
The connection was great. It sounded like I was calling from my home back in the States, possibly clearer. Dad answered, I talked with him for probably 15 minutes, then Mom picked up and I rounded out the hour talking with her. [Literally, when I checked the time after hanging up, I talked for 59 minutes and some change.] It was awesome. We talked as if I was standing in the room with them, rather than a couple of countries away, like we used to do once or twice a week when I went over to their house (or all the time during this summer when I was living there). Topics included my life here, people I've met, students, school (which is the same the world over), their life, what's going on back home, how people are, Mom's school and students...and everything in between. Distance fell away, it didn't matter. The wonders of technology.
I ended the call, and carefully made my way back home...I got in the house, and as I went to turn off my phone and put it away, all I wanted to do was go back up that hill and call again. It's almost like when I was up there talking with them, I was with them. And hanging up and going home brought back the fact that I'm a world away. And I miss them. I tell myself it's ridiculous, because I've exchanged dozens of e-mails with them without such a strong emotional response. But there's something about hearing their voices that brought everything to the surface.
I know this too shall pass. I'm sure tomorrow morning things will get busy again, school will start up, and I'll be back in my world here, doing what I need to do, what I know how to do, getting to know my students better and hopefully teaching them something. Life will go on...but it's a little lonely right now.
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