All Good Things Will Come Full Circle.

Today was our final full day here. The day was a perfect culmination of our trip - we spent most of the day in a church service for the Morogoro Diocese's annual seminar. It was the trip coming full circle - we saw all sorts of different people who we had met throughout our three months here and some new people as well. By the end of our church service I had somehow acquired a small child. As I walked through the receiving/exit line with this little boy on my hip, I said goodbye to a lot of the people we had met (I also was given a hard time by a lot of them, asking if it was my child). I had prepared for the service to be a very difficult thing, since it was the very last and it was with so many people we had come to know. But I was quite wrong, the service was a blast... I got to spend time playing with some kids and talking with a young Maasai girl. It was the perfect way to bring the trip to a close.
I have noticed that I have spent time today making myself numb to the thought of leaving. Today has definitely had its ups and downs. This morning I got a message from Natalie and it made me break into tears but a few minutes later I was fine again. I was doing very well for most of the day until after super all of a sudden I got really mellow again. It doesn't help to think that we have about 30 hours of traveling ahead of us before we actually reach home.
It is very interesting to look at how people from here say goodbye. Perhaps a large part of it is due to the nature of this school and the fact that people are always coming and going. But I have even noticed it in people who have no real connection to the school. Goodbyes aren't things people get choked up over. Goodbyes just seem to be a fact of life - people perform them very matter of factly. We are always asked if we will return, to which I almost always answer 'yes' and then the follow up is 'when?'
I suppose if I follow my own title to this post, things will come full circle and my life will follow the pattern as well. As we prepare to leave, I ask for prayers of protection. I am starting to get excited to see people back home but the prospect of leaving people and the culture that I have fallen in love with here is too near for me to allow that excitement to take hold.
Peace.