Dr. Eric has a high-quality croquet set at his house and
we also had a great time setting that up and getting a game going at least once
a day. It was especially funny to play with my dad, who is truly a croquet
shark and just about unbeatable. There was bocce ball all around the house.
Frisbee on a few evenings. And Oren enjoyed his birthday gift yard game,
Crossnet, foursquare meets volleyball. When Miriam and Gabriel came out to
visit, they really loved playing this fast-paced physical game together.
We anticipated needing some watercraft this year, and so
Paul and I invested in an inflatable 2-person kayak and an inflatable stand up
paddle board. Both of them turned out to be high quality and functional. Together with my parent’s canoe, we had enough boat space for at least five
people to be on the water at a time. Sadly, by mid-July, the shallow water of
that part of the Bay can get clogged with sea grass. In fact, our whole water
access needed to be cleared of land weeds, and then we had to wait for high
tide to get through the water weeds and out to open water. It’s a little less
nice than in Spring, but we still got out onto the water almost every day.
The thing about Home Leave is that we still needed to be
able to answer emails now and then; even Jon and Emma had to do a few hours of
work each day; and the internet in the boonies was just terrible! But we
managed to do what was necessary to keep our office running, sometimes going out
to the public library for better internet. The kids are now old enough to fend for
themselves for entertainment when they need to. So we also enjoyed quite a few
board games, and David enjoyed assembling two 1000 piece puzzles in two weeks,
all while singing along to Hamilton. (many of us pitched in on the effort, but David
was the chief puzzler).
On one of our first days together, Paul and I took David
and cousin Fletcher on a canoe trip up the Principio Creek. Fletcher was my
canoe partner. He doesn’t have much opportunity to canoe except when he visits
us, and he was really attentive and full of questions about the natural
environment, the birds, our history in the area. It was really a pleasure to
share that time with him.
David just loves getting to the picturesque spot
under the Amtrak railway bridge and throwing in a line. Even Fletcher got
involved in the fishing. I simply love being out under the trees and on the
water. I took at least one solo trip in the kayak and explored for various
places where it wasn’t too muddy and the weeds hadn’t taken hold and we might
actually get the kids in the water to swim (that is also a drawback of the
weedy summertime). As I will relate later, we never got to take advantage of
those potential swimming spots… Along the way, I tracked down a lush orange
Northern Oriole (hiding too well in the underbrush for a photo), and got some
great views of the eagles.
We also enjoyed a couple of excursions around the area.
One afternoon we all went to a local mini-golf place and had fun goofing off and
hitting the ball around. On another evening, we visited the Cecil County Fair.
We were some of the few wearing masks at a red-county celebration (and I got a
little bit of jeering for it), but the kids found it pretty entertaining to
ride the rides on the midway and pay too much money for fried fair food. We
even got to watch a few minutes of the rodeo, and marvel at the athleticism of
the guys who do steer wrestling, jumping backwards off a horse to grab a young
bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.
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| Fair games: he won a pink dolphin! |
During the month of July, I got a little bit of a bee in
my bonnet about pie. I had read an article on July 4th about how
Americans are in danger of losing the art of baking our national dish: pie.
Cake and cookies have really replaced pie and these days, most people don’t
even know what to aim for in creating a light, flaky pie crust. I realize that
I truly don’t need to eat pie. But, my mother-in-law Bunny has been
called a pie expert, yet I hadn’t ever
baked pie with her. Bunny was gracious enough to get out her pastry equipment
and to walk me through her family recipe for making pie pastry, showing me
tricks along the way.
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| Pie-making with Bunny and Jean |
She also related stories of her childhood when they
relied on growing a big garden during the summer so that they could preserve
vegetables and have healthy food to eat in the winter. There was a ton of work
to do on the farm, but fruits were plentiful and so they made two pies a day to
feed their big working family and any of the guys helping out for the summer.
We put fresh blackberries and peaches into some pies, and really enjoyed them
with our parents.
Jonathan is remarkable jazz guitarist and his beautiful
new guitar also claimed some real estate in his car on the way up to see us. We
had several nights of jam sessions after our parents left for the evening, with
Paul and Jon remembering all the old classic rock albums they enjoyed in their
youth. Lots of the songs were good ones for harmonizing (Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young, Led Zeppelin, et al). Paul would just start singing some famous
guitar riff off the top of his head, and Jonathan would somehow know exactly
what tune that was and how to play the song perfectly to accompany our
imperfect singing/mumbling of the lyrics we couldn’t quite remember.
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| Oren and Miriam chatting |
Besides our parents, we had a few other day visitors.
Miriam and Gabriel came out to spend some time with us (Miriam spending two
nights, actually). We got in the pool for a little while and played a bunch of
great board games indoors (the weather got super-hot and biting flies made it
harder to be outside for a few days). Our friend Ashley came out with two of
her kids, and David was delighted to have his age-mate Liam to share time with
him fishing. They spent a long time on our dock and actually caught fish from
between the see grass. We had planned to build a bonfire and roast hotdogs on
sticks that evening, but towards late afternoon we realized that a storm was
imminent.
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| Campfires, s'mores, evening water |
Ashley suggested protecting some of our firewood in the garage, and
so we frantically ran around with the wheelbarrow and gathered up the fallen
wood in the yard. Then, after a tremendous and quick storm, we had a collective
effort to build a fire and still had our weenie roast with marshmallows later
on.
Along the way in those two weeks, we also had some
unfortunate events. One early morning, David was out by the dock trying to
catch minnows for bait. He had gotten a really good bait net from Amazon, the
kind that could telescope and become longer. However, as he was swiping through
the water, chasing minnows, the aluminum telescoping pole snapped off. He discarded
the broken handle and kept using the remaining 2 feet of pole, continuing to
aggressively jerk his net through the water. I was outside to exercise and
suddenly I heard him cry out in pain. He came running up the walk, blood
running down his lower leg. When we got him settled, we discovered that the
sharp broken end of the aluminum pole had acted just like a scalpel and sliced
his leg deeply, long and clean. We put pressure on the wound, got his leg
elevated and waited for the urgent care center to open.
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| Games with Emma, Paul, Henry, Jonathan, Oren |
The nurse thanked him
for cutting his leg so cleanly, and he was pretty brave through the pain of the
lidocaine injections. He ended up with seven stitches holding together this gruesome
injury. And what was worse: he was absolutely forbidden from getting in the Bay
water (or any water) for the remainder of our vacation. No swimming in the Bay. So
very unfortunate for a nature-loving kid like him. ;-(.
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| Serious mini-golf |
I won’t lie: there
were two separate times when David was playing near the water and, due to an
unfortunate mishap, managed to submerge his leg up to the knee. Straight into
the shower he went to wash the wound again. But still, after 10 days, he
developed an infection in the wound and needed to be on antibiotics. Probably I
can’t post any wound photos here, lest we get banned from Facebook. He’s all
better now, but the kid has a scar and a story that he can tell for years to
come.
Meanwhile, Paul somehow developed an infection in his
leg. We have no idea how it happened, but two days later he was feverish with a
very swollen calf. He drove in to town to consult with our doctor and needed to
follow up with a surgeon to cut the cellulitis open and get it to drain.
In his
case, it was a bit scary with the risk of a systemic infection. But thankfully
the antibiotics started to help after a few days. Still, these medical issues
cost us quite a bit of time and money, and took away some of the fun – it’s
hard to stay up late and enjoy company when you’re in a lot of pain. And for
two weeks, Paul and David had matching bandages around their calves.
Paul was really worried about how he would get the repair
work done with his wounded leg, but fortunately he was feeling better by the
end of our second week. He borrowed a truck with a lift so that he could go
high up on the front cedar siding and fill holes in the wood damaged by
woodpeckers. The next day he stained the wood and made it look almost as good
as new. I did some deep cleaning of a few public spaces. And we did our best to
help the house look fresh and welcoming for whenever Dr. Eric came down again.
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| Jean, Henry, Fletcher and Emma |
On a Saturday of perfect weather, we sadly had to spend
much of the day cleaning up to leave. My parents came to help and to take our
kids home with them to mow. But towards mid-afternoon, Paul and I were done. We
had a little time to sit and enjoy the view and contemplate how far we had
come. Since January, we have been in a constant state of transition and upheaval,
without steady family routine, and with a lot of anticipated change. We were
really looking forward to this time in the US as a time to reset and regather
strength so that we could fully enter into our new life in Ethiopia.
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| Final fishing trip up the creek |
When we
first arrived in Addis in July, it was just too quick of a transition and too
close to the grief of parting with friends in Tanzania. We really needed the
quiet, green space by the Bay, especially now that it is infused with so many
homely memories for us as a family. It’s a spot I’ve been coming to since I was
8 years old, and Paul has been joining me for the past 20 years. And layered on
top of that were the fascinating months of lockdown last spring in this same
location. It was good to remember what that time of stillness felt like (though
this home leave was much busier) and to remember what nurtured us as a family through
those four months last year. We also had to turn and face the next two
weeks—packed with all the doctors visits and many more gatherings with friends.
It’s not easy to be back in the US for this relatively short time. There’s just
too much to savor, too many good friends to try to catch up with, too many
things to remember to bring back with us. The pressure to make it a good visit
is high…
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| Paul, Jean and Henry |
We especially wanted to return Saturday evening so that
we could be part of a church picnic on Sunday after a Zoom worship service.
Sadly, the weather turned from bad to worse. A few people made it to the church
picnic, but it was already drizzling when we arrived. Our kids stayed in the
car and we just stood around in our raincoats, just enough time to greet a few
people before the heavens opened and we all scattered. Then we spend a lot of
the afternoon waiting around in the urgent care facility to get David’s
infected wound tended to. Finally, we made it to Paul’s parents’ apartment
where we spent some time and dropped off David for a sleepover. Oren had his
sleepover later in the week. I’m so glad that each of our kids had intentional
and individual time with their paternal grandparents.
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| Oren |
On Monday, my mom took us to the Aquarium – one of our
favorite places to visit in Baltimore. I think Oren enjoyed it even more this
year and was very observant about what we were seeing. David has less stamina
for spending a long time in front of any one tank, but it was still great to be
there. In the middle of the day, Jean took us to the Hard Rock café, truly a
blast from the past (1980’s) kind of cool. It was really interesting and funny
to realize how little my kids know about rock n’ roll.
 |
| Lincoln Memorial |
Tuesday was our Washington Day. Cousin Gabriel joined us
for the outing, and we were so glad he did. Because of the rising risks of
Covid, we elected to do a self-guided walking tour of several national
monuments around the Mall to keep ourselves outdoors. So, we drove all the way
downtown and then started with viewing the White House from a distance. It’s
amazing how much more security there is surrounding the place these days. We
walked past and through the WWII monument – very grand and nationalistic – and
then noted the stark contrasts with the Vietnam Veterans memorial. The cost of
war is so much more personal and reflective in the second monument. We moved on
to the Lincoln memorial, and I was most impressed with the engraving of
Lincoln’s second inaugural address, given in the midst of the deadly Civil War.
He was essentially asking: who are we to complain if our just God judges our
nation for the sin of slavery, and if he, for every drop of blood spilled by
the whip, demands payment by blood spilled at the point of the sword. He was
praying for mercy, but clearly placed himself humbly under God’s justice. I
didn’t know he was such a theological thinker and I was truly moved.
 |
| MLK,Jr monument |
Next, we
arrived at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, which was again very moving
and inspiring. King was a national treasure, taken from us far too soon, a fact
expressed artistically by the unfinished parts of the statue honoring him. We
continued walking around the tidal basin to the Jefferson Memorial and noted
how MLK’s monument lies across a straight line between Lincoln and Jefferson –
a very interesting bit of monument planning with interesting interpretations.
Finally, we walked back to the National Mall and the American history museum to
get some late lunch and eat outside. We were pretty tired by that point, having
walked 8 km, but it was good to see some interesting history exhibits after all
the monuments. We drove back home in the evening, tired but glad we had gone
together.
We needed a quiet day Wednesday after all that activity,
with time to catch up on our work. I also had doctor’s appointments Weds and
Thursday. I got one long walk in the woods by myself after a trip to the doctor
in town. Paul and I made a special anniversary supper for my parents one
evening.
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| Anniversary dinner |
Towards the end of the week we were due for our second Covid vaccine,
and also needed to do a bit of shopping. Most of us had some flu like symptoms
after the second shot, perhaps because the kids and I almost certainly had
Covid last December (only Paul felt totally fine), so we also needed some down
time at the end of the week.
Friday was a big day. Our friends the Ballards came over
to spend time with us in the early part of the day. It was great to catch up
with them and also fit in a game of croquet.
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| Anniversary flowers |
And then Paul and I got dressed up
to go to a home church wedding, between two young adults at North Baltimore
Mennonite Church. The groom was the son of our good friends and renters of our
Baltimore house, who happen to be from Ethiopia. We carpooled with my brother’s
family and met lots of church friends at this wedding. The service was in both
English and Amharic, and involved a real blending of cultures. It was a
wonderful opportunity to catch up with a few old friends we hadn’t seen yet,
while we also got to meet a woman who will be our neighbor in Addis. It truly
felt like a small world. We had left the kids with my parents, but later
realized that they would have enjoyed the dinner and dancing aspect of the
evening a lot with their cousins and other kids from the church.
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| Hannah and Israel |
Over the weekend,
we took the chance to take a walk at Loch Raven reservoir to a peaceful
corner in the woods. And Paul, David and I were really wanting to enjoy some
good sushi, so we fit that into our day. We got to attend church in-person on the lawn
outside the sanctuary and really enjoyed that. We met our parents for a
traditional Indian lunch – something we used to do often when we lived in
Maryland. And then we joined up with my brother and his kids for some time at
their pool – which was very refreshing and relaxing.  |
| Log walking at Loch Raven |
Our last week of home leave took us in a few different
directions. Paul and his dad left for a quick trip to North Carolina to see his
middle brother and wife. It was just one overnight, but it really felt
important to see them and spend some time and visit them in their new home down
there. I think Paul also was glad for the time in the car with his dad and the
time to talk with nephew Charlie on the phone while they drove.
 |
| Paul and Henry with Mark |
Meanwhile, I woke up early with the kids on Monday and we
went to support the VBS program of our church, Peace Camp. Oren and David
volunteered as junior youth leaders for three days that week, helping to animate
and focus the younger campers (grades 3 – 6). I caught my boys actually having
fun themselves playing the big group games outdoors and working on skits with
their small groups. I really wanted them to find a way to keep that personal
connection with our home church somehow. It’s harder this summer with only one
possible in-person service, and no youth group meetings. But I think serving
was a good way for them to stay connected and challenged. I also helped by
leading music for the group on those days. Then I went off to do my office work
in some corner of the public park where the kids were meeting. |
| Peace camp banner |
Peace Camp met at the same park where the zoo is located
and so on Monday our friend Ashley agreed to take us into the Zoo, along with
her son and another church friend David’s age. The three of them were quite a
trio and I think they really enjoyed themselves seeing the animals and even going
through all the slides several times.
 |
| zoo friends |
They are pushing the upper end of the age
limit, but it’s great to see 12 year olds still willing to enjoy their
childhood, not growing up too fast. When we left the Zoo, we went to spend a
little time with my Aunt Jo. I was so glad to see her and talk with her a
little bit one-on-one. Oren was fascinated by her description of the disputes
with her Trumpist neighbor, who has literally built a wall of Trump signs to
divide their properties. She has decided to do nothing – nothing including not
cutting the grass next to those signs, in hopes that the weeds will grow up and
obscure the barrier with green! This is how personal the political is getting
in our country right now. |
| Cousins gathering |
Our final activity of the day took us to my cousin
Colette’s house, where we met Gretchen, my cousin visiting from Texas. It has
been incredibly long since we’ve seen each other, and I was so glad to be in
town finally on one of her visits. Gretchen is a marvelous facilitator of
conversation, and she got us all talking about what we did for our first jobs,
as well as what we might dream of doing in our lives if we had the skill and
opportunity. We were hosted by my cousins Colette and George, and joined by
another cousin, Dan, so it was truly a great family get-together.
 |
| David, Oren, Gabe, Miriam |
We were back at Peace Camp Tuesday morning, but then came
home to spend a quieter afternoon recovering. Late in the day, I decided to
take David to this great fishing hole I’d seen on one of my jogs through the
forest. I thought it wasn’t far, but it turned out that we had to walk 25
minutes to get there. By the time I had found some worms as bait, the sky was
starting rumble. We saw a hole bunch of big fish, including a long American
eel, but these fish were clever and weren’t biting. The sky kept rumbling more
seriously and I urged David that it was time to go to avoid flash floods.
 |
| At the fishing hole |
But
he still hadn’t caught anything and really wanted to persist. Finally a few
raindrops started to fall and, and he also became alarmed and ready to go. As
we turned to leave, the wind picked up and I remembered the other hazards of
being in a forest in a storm: lightning and falling limbs. The danger was
suddenly pretty clear to him too and we literally ran back to the car as fast
as we could make our legs carry us (return trip in 15 minutes), with small
leaves and twigs falling around us and lightning getting close. The rain
started the second we reached the car, and by the time I had backed out and
started driving away, the heavens opened and it was bucketing rain. As David said,
as far as a fishing trip it ranked 0 out of 10; as far as an adrenaline rush adventure,
it ranked about 100! Oren had been left at home alone and he was really worried
for us, so he was glad to see us back. We topped off that day with dessert with
our family friends Louise and Jack Ballard.
 |
| Dinner with Henry and Bunny |
Other highlights of our last few days included a nice
dinner with Bunny and Henry. We enjoy going to one of their dining rooms with
them, and then going out in the cool of the evening to play bocce ball on the
great course they have in their senior living center. On Saturday, We had a
little time to visit with Genet, our friend and renter. And we were able to
stop by and wish Miriam a happy birthday, as well as seeing my brother a few
more times. We needed time for packing, of course, but also fit in some yard
work with my parents and a few more trips to the Gunpowder, much more peaceful,
with excellent fishing on our final Sunday in Fallston.  |
| Final Gunpowder outing |
And now we will be back in Addis in about six hours and
finally I think we are ready to be back. We are looking forward to establishing
a home there, making friends, and really digging into the work. We got good
news in the midst of our home leave that David finally got a place in 7th
grade, so he will be going to school in the typical fashion, making it much
easier for us to learn about our new context and do our job together as a
couple, rather than needing to learn how to facilitate home school on top of
everything. And there will be much to do when we return to Ethiopia,
particularly a new and concerning need for emergency relief work. Violence in
the north is spilling southward, and out into other regions. There are hundreds
of thousands of people displaced who need food aid and other support. We will
need to work hard with our team to figure out the appropriate responses. And so
that will be our focus in the coming days. Thanks for praying for us as we work
to transition into a new normal life, and for the nation of Ethiopia,
especially for a peaceful resolution of these conflicts which are making life
so difficult for so many ordinary people who just want to make a living.
Many bonus photos:
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| Cousins playing horseshoes |
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| Rainbow at my parents' house |
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| David, Oren and Miriam |
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| Oren at Peace Camp |
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| Picking blackberries with Jean |
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| Butterfly in the berries |
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| and another |
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| Pie almost finished |
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| Our view of the Bay |
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| Fishing |
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| Dave and Bunny |
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| Cornhole again |
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| Full moon on the water |
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| Gorgeous moth |
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| More corn hole |
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| Swinging at the Fair |
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| David and Liam fishing |
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| A good throw at Bocce ball |
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| Paul and Bunny |
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| Measuring a close call in bocce |
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| Gabe in DC |
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| Jefferson monument, our guys in the background |
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| Sushi feast! |
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| morning Spiderweb in the forest |
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| Peace camp games |
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| Zoo lion |
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| and more zoo lion! |
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| Oren as all the animals (panorama shot) |
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| Gunpowder Falls beauty |
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| Final morning of great fishing |
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| Henry and Oren |
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| David and Dave |
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| David, otters at the zoo |
Even the grandmothers who didn’t play enjoyed watching and
cheering. I could probably fill this entire blog with photos of our extended
family playing corn hole on many, many days over the past month.
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