Hasta La Primavera

It's time to start saying good-bye, or rather, see you in the (late) spring. "You" in this scenario, is mostly Portland and all the people I love here. These people include my family, first and foremost: niece and nephew, cousins and aunt; and also some dear friends. The family will, mostly, I expect, be here when I get back. The friends include a couple of people I met in my graduate program whom I've become really close with. One is going on to law school this year - here in Portland at least - but another is going into the Peace Corps for two years. With all that change, and me gone so long, I hope will we be able to maintain the friendships that we've built during and since our time in school. There are also a few dear friends in my neighborhood, including my actual neighbors, that I will miss hanging out with when we have occasion to do so, but who will most likely be here when we get back. 

Finally, there's my family outside of Oregon, some even outside of the country, that I don't see very often anyway, but at least a couple of times a year. Will I get to see them during the nine months that I'm gone? Will they be able to visit me in Mexico? Maybe. But we will be in a fairly remote place and it may not be very accessible. Some of my friends in other states have said they'd make a point to come visit but that was before I knew where I was being sent (Tepatepec, Hidalgo - in case you didn't read earlier posts).

Not to be melodramatic, but I feel a little like Emily from the play Our Town as she says good-bye to life: "...Good-bye to clocks ticking. And Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths..." In my case, it's: "Good-bye to our pretty house, to the green, green trees that surround us, to my favorite tea kettle, to my bookcases, to the lovely roses the guy around the corner grows, to Portland's beautiful bridges, to...I guess...a world of abundance and rain and privilege." And yet, that's why I'm going, right? To experience a completely different world and culture: to learn, to listen, to do what I can to benefit the people I come in contact with - to leave my world of privilege for a time and discover the lessons that are out there for me.  

I will keep updating this blog so you can follow along on our journey, but, to my close friends and family, good-bye until spring. Please wish me and Jon and the cat good luck. We wish the same to anyone reading. 

Photo: A beautiful arrangement one of my dear friends in Portland set out for me when I went to visit.