no place like home

I've been home since October. I surprised the whole family with my arrival and then curled up in the fetal position next to the roaring fireplace in my parent's basement under a blanket and read magazines. I slowly began to emerge and go on glorious trips to the supermarket for fresh fruit and vegetables and dark chocolate. I then began to speak to local groups and share the adventures of the past year in Mozambique. I was encouraged and hugged and blessed and loved on by my community so aptly named, Hartwell.

I spent all my spare time with nieces, nephews and the Old Folks on the tennis courts. Nathaniel and I went on a road trip to Kentucky to see Laura and her family, played in the snow and toured Mammoth Cave. Michael Stuckey graciously helped me finally move all my furniture and belongings out of my Atlanta house and into a sad little storage space in Reed Creek. I moved from The Cabin to The Treehouse, a perfect studio apartment for a transient missionary. I went to Texas to hear Heidi speak, sell our Galeria dos Sonhos items and see fellow missionaries, Jim & Twyla Taylor and amazing friends, Wanda & Perry Gaspard. Then I went to Nashville for a writer's conference hosted by the Nashville Treehouse as it seemed like such the ideal weekend. I went to learn how to make these entries better and to learn about the world of writing, blogging, journalism and publishing. Little did I know I would walk away with so much more.

It was there I learned of Thistle Farms and went back to Nashville to visit this organization that functions as a social enterprise. They will be ordering from us at Galeria dos Sonhos. It was in our conversations that I realized that I have a skill to offer similar organizations. I see a need for persons experienced in working cross-culturally to step into an international social enterprise and work with local goods and resources to set up a business plan and oversee quality control. Thistle Farms is already partnering with several small overseas organizations but has no way to truly oversee production, cut costs and improve quality. For example, the essential oils they sell to Whole Foods are packed in small purple and gold bags handmade in South America, but the bags vary in size and some in the last lot were too small to use. They need someone to oversee production and cut out middle men in purchasing raw materials.

For years my personal motto has been, "job creation is key to eradicating poverty". I get excited about creating jobs in third world countries. During this week of dreaming about how I could help Thistle Farms and their international partnerships, I was offered a teaching and administration position in a school in the U.S. The school is focused on international missions. I would get to teach a six-week course on social entrepreneurship and then take a team of students abroad to implement what they learn and help start a small business. I even get to choose the location. The offer was too good to refuse. It also happens to be in picturesque, Lake Tahoe. I accepted the position and will be taking a team to Cameroon in late September! I will be living in  Lake Tahoe from August 1st (happy birthday to me) to September 23 and from there boarding a plane to Cameroon. Thoughts of arriving back in my beloved Africa remind of this passage from Alexandra Fuller's book, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness:

The farther south the ship sailed, the more Mum rejoiced. As Africa swelled into view, she pinned herself to the railings of the deck and felt the dampness of the last three years lift from her shoulders. When a hint of the shimmering purple ribbon on the horizon bespoke Kenya, she held her face to the west and tried to inhale the perfect equatorial light. And as the ship veered around the tip of Africa, Mum held me up to the earthy, wood-fire-spiced air. A hot African wind blew my black bowl cut into a halo. "Smell that," Mum whispered in my ear. "That's home."