It's Saturday morning, and here I am, updating you on our status. We arrived in Toronto on Tuesday and went straight into quarantine at the mission residence owned by the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Our friend Glynis, from the office, is keeping us supplied with all the food we could want. We even have toilet paper. I hear that at the office they actually discussed how to get me some yarn when I came home! Bless their hearts. They are truly a blessing to us.
Fortunately I had just bought quite a supply of yarn before I knew we were leaving Malawi, and I had room in my luggage for it, so I have enough to last a while anyway, if I am a little careful. I'm no longer in a hurry to get through the projects as I was in Malawi, especially at the end. I'm quite relaxed these days. There is no option, really, with basically nothing to do except process all we have experienced in the past few months.
It's hard to believe that we were in Malawi for only a little over two months! It feels like we lived a lifetime there. It's almost a cliche to say it was a life-changing experience, but it truly was. I will never forget Malawi and the dear people we had to do with there, even if I am so unfortunate as never to go back. Their warmth and the generosity with which they welcomed us taught me so much about Christian hospitality. They are truly brothers and sisters in Christ. That phrase has a whole new and deeper meaning for me now, thanks to Lyca and Rammy and Hastings.
As for how we pass the time here, we do a lot of email and Steve is keeping up on the news now that we have the luxury of all day WiFi. I'm rather glad that we didn't have that in Malawi. It would have been too easy to live in a sort of virtual world, instead of being fully present there.
I am doing some knitting and making some phone calls. What a luxury, actually to hear people's voices again. Email is wonderful, but it's just not the same as the immediacy of a phone call.
Steve is doing some of his paint by number, one that he actually brought along back from Malawi.
We sat down together yesterday to think through what we might talk about if we were so fortunate as to be asked to share our experience. It took me several hours to type up what we talked about. So clearly we will need to do a lot of editing before sharing with anyone! We'll see what we come up with in the end.
Steve has also been cooking, and he baked bread the other day. Yumm!
So you can see that we manage to pass the time as we hang around the apartment waiting for our fourteen days to pass. It will be awfully nice to get out for a walk, even if we have to stay six feet away from everyone! In the meantime, we have lots of time to pray, and we do pray for all of you, and time to think. Not a bad way to return, when it comes right down to it!
Hope you are all coping okay with this strange reality in which we find ourselves. Talk about a life-changing experience!
Steve and I are hanging out in Toronto.
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