Summer Recap

It has been a long time since my last update, and since we missed the entire month of July, it seems a summer recap is in order. By way of orientation, I (Paul) am currently back in Nairobi, having arrived with David three days ago. He is starting school this week. Rebecca is remaining in the US to get Oren started at Goshen College, where he transferred this year. She will be back in a couple of weeks. 

I believe I left off since my last update here: A View From the Other Side of the Pond, with news about my hip replacement surgery and convalescence at my parents' house. Needless to say, at this point, I have fully recovered without any complications. 

After leaving my parents' apartment, I spent about 10 days housesitting for Rebecca's brother with David and Oren. David finished driver's ed., and Oren worked at Cava. I did my best to keep up with MCC work as well as manage two small dogs that lived at her brother's house. From there, I spent a week at Rebecca's parents' house while they were gone for a week in Europe. During that week, Rebecca arrived, and we had a few days as a family there. David and Oren spent a lot of time doing different crafts. David loves to sculpt in clay, and he worked on a cool diorama of a tree that had fallen over a brook. 

Among the things we did that have become tradition when we are back in Baltimore as a family, included going to the zoo, grilling salmon and having it with sweet corn for dinner, playing croquet, mowing the lawn, riding a bike, fishing in the Little Gunpowder, and walking in the woods.  

We also typically celebrate Oren's Birthday, which usually falls shortly after our arrival in the US, with family. This year, we had a party at Rebecca's brother's house as well as a separate one with grandparents. Oren wanted a cheesecake, which we acquired from a grocery store. The highlight of the gift-giving was a bas-relief of a Tintin scene constructed by David in clay. Oren collects Tintin memorabilia, and this piece was pretty cool as an addition to his collection. He also got some nice shirts from me. 

Other activities included playing different board games. Grandparents like Rummicube, but we also played Mexican Train, a dominoes game that can be played by a large group. We also introduced Telestrations to many groups during our time. It is the best group game I can think of.

I think the most important highlights were the visits with friends whom we have not seen for a long time. Bereket, our Ethiopian 'son' who we helped get a visa to attend EMU when we lived in Addis, is spending the summer with his host family in Virginia. We made a plan for him to come up by bus to Baltimore to see us. He is a great friend of Oren and David, and we were all very excited to see him. We picked him up on July 7th from the bus terminal downtown. This was very serendipitous because we went downtown that day to meet another family we had known in Ethiopia (Paul and Yemmi with kids Lisan and Brana) who had been in DC helping Lisan get ready for college. They had a short window of time to swing by Baltimore, and we had lunch and toured the Visionary Art Museum with them before they returned to DC, and we picked up Bereket. 

As an aside, I will mention that the Visionary Art Museum is quite a unique experience. It is a collection of works, paintings as well as installations, created by people who have no formal art training. Some of the media that are used are quite unique--matchsticks, yarn, etc. Many of them suggest the creators suffered from OCD or other mental challenges that compelled them to create these meticulously elaborate pieces. 

Bereket arrived and spent the first night with us at Rebecca's parents' house. We introduced him to croquet, which was a new experience for him. At this point in our croquet careers, David wins pretty much every game. He gave us a really good report of the past year at EMU, and we continue to be thankful for the nearly miraculous visa acquisition last year. 

The next day, our family moved out to a house on the Bay, where we have spent some time every year since COVID in 2020. It was at that time that we met the couple who owned the house and let us use it during our time we were stranded in the US because of flight restrictions. It is an incredible place that resembles a Swiss chalet but decorated in 1970s Brady Bunch style. There is even a floating spiral staircase up to a loft that overlooks the open-plan living room-dining room. 

The house is right on an estuary of the Upper Chesapeake Bay, so we can launch some boats we have, as well as fish or just walk along the shore. We usually bring a kayak, canoe, and inflatable stand-up paddleboard, as well as fishing gear, games, puzzles, etc. 

We spent 10 days there, the first three with Bereket, and had a very relaxing time. I was glad that I had recovered sufficiently from surgery to go in the water without risk of infection at the site of the incision. (I was told to wait a month before swimming). We fished and canoed. The family who owns the house has an amazing oversized croquet set that is really fun to play with. 

On the third day of our time there, we had to take Bereket down to Washington, DC to meet his host family and go back to Virginia. He is staying with Bruce and Rose, the former MCC Ethiopia Reps, whom we know well. We took Bereket down in the morning and spent some time in the Smithsonian Natural History and Air and Space Museums (where we met up with Bruce and Rose), BUT on the way, we also stopped at the National Aquarium in Baltimore since Bereket had wanted to see that. It was quite an experience for Bereket, albeit quite exhausting to get through 3 museums in two cities. 

Bruce and Rose also brought their son Jacob. Unfortunately, Oren was not with us as he had to work at Cava that day. He is a friend of Jacob, and they will both be at Goshen next year. 

Before saying goodbye to Bereket and returning to the bay, we all went out to an excellent Ethiopian restaurant in DC and had an incredible meal. I thought I had had my fill of Ethiopian food after living there for 3 years, but it was great to have enjira again, and we even ordered kitfo (raw beef) for Bereket. We said our goodbyes and drove back that night. 

The rest of the time at the bay was probably the most relaxing part of the summer. Six days with very little work or visitors. This was a bit unusual because every year since COVID, we have hosted my brother Jonathan's family while we are out there, as well as Jennifer P., who is a fellow humanitarian worker and comes back for vacation when we are there. Jonathan and co. moved to Dallas this summer so did not have time to come out, and Jennifer was in Kiev and was recovering from some surgery and could not visit us either. Despite this, we enjoyed our time there with visits from grandparents who only live an hour away. We celebrated Rebecca's Birthday as well as our anniversary and Bunny and Henry's anniversary (my parents) during those days. 

We also did some work around the property, as we appreciate the generosity of the family that let us use it. This included mowing, weeding, powerwashing, clearing hornets' nests, and chainsawing down a large black locust tree that fell during a storm while we were there. We usually end up doing that at least once every year we are there. On the last day, Rebeca and I spent most of it cleaning the house and leaving it better than we found it. We remain grateful every year we are able to stay there. 

When we returned, we went back to Dave and Jean's house (Rebecca's parents) and had a week of catching up on work as well as multiple doctors' appointments, driving lessons, shopping for items for our return to Kenya, and other business related to getting ready to go back. We did have some good family time with grandparents as well. 

In our final full week in the US as a family, we attended a family reunion with my siblings on my side of the family. This was organized by my dad, and we all agreed to meet up in a place midway between all participants. That ended up being in Ohio, next to Lake Milton, near Cleveland. My brother Jonathan and his wife Emma came up from Texas with son Fletcher, who is Oren's age. My brother Mark and Christine came up from NC. Our family drove with my parents from Baltimore. We were also joined by Mark and Christine's two adult children, Grace, who came with them from NC, and Prisha came with her partner Eli and two young children, Astraya and Aurelius. We arrived in shifts over the first weekend. 

This was a special and likely singular gathering as my parents are older and won't be up for a lot of travel in the future, and this is a very disparate group. We had a very meaningful time nonetheless. I had never seen my niece's children, for instance. We had also missed Jonathan's family the whole summer, so I was happy they were all there. A number of us have health problems that could also limit travel in the future. We did many activities, most of them on or about the lake. We spent a day on a boat with a towable tube which was a blast. David and I played golf one day, we went swimming another, and did some short hikes. We also played board games and did puzzles. In the afternoons at 4pm, we had family time with discussions or presentations on different topics. 

The height of our entertainment, though, was playing music. Jonathan and Rebecca both play guitar, as well as David. I brought my banjo, and Grace brought her ukulele. Christine, my parents like to sing as well as all of the musicians. We did a ton of folk and southern rock songs that had good harmonies (like the Eagles), as well as some bluegrass. 

The littles (Aurelius and Astraya) also introduced a new dynamic of young children, which we have not had at a Mosley reunion since our kids were young. I was amazed at how great the older cousins (Oren, David, and Fletcher) were with the kids. They entertained them for many hours a day. 

We also took turns cooking meals, which resulted in an amazing array of cuisine, from TexMex to Indian and Cajun.

We all left at the end of the week, and our family returned to Baltimore with my parents. That left two days for David and me to pack and do any last things we needed to do before departing for Kenya. Among the last things Rebecca and I did was to give a presentation (mission moment) to our North Baltimore Mennonite, our home church, on opportunities for young adult volunteers with MCC in Kenya. David and I did a last fishing trip and caught some large trout and smallmouth bass-- a good one to end on.

We had a traditional last supper with Rebecca and my parents on the night before our departure. On the last day, I took one final bike ride through the rural countryside near Rebecca's parents' house, then we left for Dulles at noon. Rebecca dropped us off since she is staying in Baltimore for an extra two weeks. She can say more about that in the next blog.

The flight home was about average. I did have the worst seat on the plane, the second leg--last row, in the middle of the aisle section of seats. David was not close by either. But I endured by watching a bunch of movies. 

We arrived home late on Tuesday, all bags intact, and I went to work on Wednesday morning to a full docket of tasks. I am looking forward to Rebecca's return.