"The one in the middle, I love you!"

I recently returned home from a 6 week-long stay in South Africa, during which I was completely immersed in a new culture, landscape, society, climate, etc. This trip was nothing short of life changing, which is to be expected when one leaves their country and everything familiar for a significant amount of time. As I flew into Cape Town, the sun was beginning to set, casting a golden hue on the luscious green farmlands and the crowning natural wonder of the City--Table Mountain, around which the city is formed.  Such a view inspired the warm feelings of meeting a long lost friend.  I can only use the word 'magical' to describe my first few days there. Although I was mostly in a western society similar to my home in the States, I was surrounded by entirely new trees and plants and animals and birds and smells and landscapes. My senses were overwhelmed. I felt a bit like a child again, wildly asking questions about the names of the birds and trees. I was given immediate answers to my questions as well. South Africans, at least the ones I interacted with, are well acquainted with and respectful of their surroundings. I even managed to escape customs with some smuggled acacia seeds (teehee). 

For the most part, my trip was successful in accomplishing the tasks I had set out to accomplish, though at times it seemed unbearable. It sucks being so drastically separated from your support system--the people who know you and love you the most. However, I've found that now that I am home, my insides are a bit torn. Where ever one lives or travels to, and whomever that person develops relationships with, these places and people become a part of you or shape you in some way. Being in South Africa for so long, the people that I began to love, the smells and sounds and landscape that I experienced on daily basis, have all embedded themselves in my heart--never to be removed. 

The day I left South Africa was a brilliant sunny day--the first sunny day all week in fact. For my last meal in the country, my boyfriend's family took me to this lovely restaurant on a farm situated on a green rolling hill. This hill overlooked other rolling hills with sheep and vineyards and other such lovely things. On the premises, there were a number of small simple houses where the workers lived. After we finished our meal, we piled into the car, where I sat in the middle backseat. When we drove through the workers' housing area, the cutest little black girls, about 6 years of age, were standing on either side of the road blowing kisses at us. I couldn't tell what they were saying at first, but then I heard one of them call out: "The one in the middle, I love you!".  Needless to say, my emotions were cascading out of my eyes. I think that was the most perfect 'goodbye' and parting memory Africa could give me.