Packed and Ready to Go

Plaza Grande

Our lease is up on July 7th and we are to fly out on the 13th of the month, so I am feeling some urgency about getting all my belongings organized. I had a huge pile on one side of my bedroom and today I decided to devote all my energies to that pile and not leave the house until I had mastered it. I gave Maya a list of violin tasks to do while I dove in. And I focused and persevered and by noon the pile was gone. Except that the pile on the left side of the room was much larger. The left side holds everything that I plan to put into the four suitcases Maya and I are allowed to fly with.

Our major outing of the day was to go by Ecovia to the Mariscal to purchase another suitcase. Eric had directed me to Amazonas next to the Coffee Tree, where I found an expandable bag on wheels. It can be small and it can be enormous. I am not sure about the quality, but it will do for the journey to Baltimore.

Orchestra and violin lessons took over the late afternoon and evening, but I was able to pack up the four bags and get them out of my room into the hallway. The children of a friend of mine from Paris were due to arrive at 7PM, and Maya and I decided that they would sleep in the big room with the double bed, while we shared the twin bed in Maya's room. They were delayed out of Panama city and when they finally got to Caracas, they missed their flight to Quito and had to stay overnight near the airport and catch another flight tomorrow.

I was relieved that I had made so much progress with my bags, I feel far more prepared to leave and am reassured that I do not have too much to bring. I am leaving several large boxes of books and papers in Ecuador, mostly because they are too heavy and not essential. I am not sure I will ever have use for them, but I cannot throw them away or give them away, at least not yet.

The house is looking good, I am almost packed and ready to go, but of course I am not ready to leave. I am going through the motions and accomplishing what must be accomplished but I would rather not go at all. Perhaps if I go through all the motions, I will start getting excited about returning to my life, a life that feels so far away and so foreign.