A Big Surprise for Rebecca

Rebecca doing some stretching during the 5 hour layover in the Brussels Airport.  Only 8 hours more to go!


Usually when we are back in the USA I do a modified writing schedule, posting about every two weeks, but I feel obliged to get something up as soon as possible since there was quite alot of exciting activity surrounding the weekend of our arrival and I don't want to miss any of it.

One of the reasons I need to unload a bit is because I have been harboring a big secret for several months and was finally able to unveil it.  It was, in fact, something that I had been concealing from my wife and the pressure to keep the lid on it was becoming more and more difficult!  (drum roll)  The truth is, I had created a secret email account and had been communicating clandestinely with many people in the past few months... the subject was... her 40th Birthday!!  Yes, I managed, long distance, to successfully organize a surprise 40th Birthday party for her on the weekend of our arrival in the US!

This was no mean feat, and truth be told, I had a major co-conspiritor in this, that being Rebecca's mother Jean Sack.  She was the logistical anchor for this caper, which involved getting a place to meet and helping to coordinate the arrival of the many out of town guests.

If any of you read the last blog, you might have noticed that Rebecca's actual Birthday was our second to last day in Burundi and we were quite busy trying to get out of the country.  Nonetheless, I feared I might have drawn suspicion to this scheme in just how lame that 'party' was.  I have to admit, I did not do a very good job of creating a 'cover' party on the actual day, but rather begged off by saying that trying to have a party on the evening before our departure would be a bit too much.  We did have our SALTers over with some pastries, but it hardly counts as a celebration of a milestone year.  Somehow, Rebecca accepted this, probably because we were both feeling the pressure of leaving, and did not give me too much grief for being such a 'lame' husband.

The delayed surprise did mean that I had been waiting with considerable anticipation the fruition of my secret plan.  But let me back up to lay the groundwork to our arrival at Charter Hall on Friday where the event took place.

I last posted on the evening before our departure for Burundi.  I had picked up the SALT volunteers from Rwanda and we spent the last several days debriefing them and packing for our departure.  Somehow we did manage to stay a bit ahead of the game and we left the house in good order for our house sitter Jodi Mikalachki.

We continued to keep the kids in play school even up to the day of departure because we were leaving in the evening.  This gave Rebecca and I the opportunity to do very good prep for the departure, not only with regard to packing and making sure we had the right gifts for friends and family at home, but also to take a morning swim and have devotional time on the day of departure.  It was a nice way to begin the last day of departure for a month.  I realized at that moment that this is something I will miss about leaving.  This morning routine has been a life saver for us when we can have it.

We did more packing in the afternoon and ran several errands related to paying bills and banking.  In the early evening we had everything packed and loaded into 2 cars.  Jennifer brought her car and Felix drove ours.  Janelle, our 3rd SALTer was actually brought by her host family, which was good since there was barely enough room for all of us and our luggage.

We got to the airport and said our last goodbyes, Janelle's host family was there in force with the immediate family and a number of aunts and uncles.  After a tearful departure we went through the ticketing, immigration, and customs to the departure lounge.

The plane landed after dark and to board this gigantic Brussels Air A360 is quite an experience.  We, as usual have to walk up the 2 story gangway and it feels like entering a brightly lit cruise liner.  The cool clean classical-music-ambianced interior seems very incongruous with the sombre impoverished exterior surroundings.

We settled into our seats for the 10 hour flight overnight.  Unfortunately the kids were pretty squirrely on the first leg and before David fell asleep we made quite an effort to keep him entertained and not fussing loudly.  The dinner  was served very late that night and both kids were quite hungry.  We were also disappointed that there were no kids movies on the personal entertainment center.  Mercifully boredom finally gave way to sleep.  The seats did not recline in any way convenable to sleep for adults but I did manage to doze for much of the flight.

We arrived in Brussels the next morning and had a 5 hour layover in the airport.  The kids did enjoy running around in it and riding the seemingly endless moving walkways.  We boarded a United 777 for the last leg which was a considerable improvement in terms of reclining seats and kids entertainment.  Both of them were willing to sit and watch movies for about 6 hours before getting bored and agitated.  We did take turns entertaining them for the last few hours to Dulles.

We arrived in Dulles and moved very quickly through the airport to find Papa Dave and Grandma Jean (Rebecca's parents) waiting for us.   We loaded the minivan they had brought and headed to Baltimore.  Sadly, because it was rush hour this took nearly another 4 hours to get to my parents' house which was our first stop of the evening.

Arriving and having a Birthday for Oren is a tradition we have had in past years since the cousins and Grandparents miss his Birthday on June 29th.  Grammy Bunny (my mother) had prepared a party with a dinosaur cake, balloons, napkins, and invited Miriam and Gabriel their cousins over with Paul and Gwendolyn (Rebecca's brother and sister-in-law).  It was a great party and a great way to begin our time here.  The cousins were ecstatic to see each other and Oren and David were very happy to be back in these familiar surroundings with many familiar people, games and toys they had enjoyed in years past.  It was also a treat for them to be together with all 4 grandparents on their first evening back.

We left after 9pm to drive the 20 minutes back to Dave and Jean's house (Rebecca'a parents).  It was actually good the kids stayed up this late because it helped them adjust to the 6 hour time difference.  David slept until nearly 6 but Oren woke up at 4 and started working on one of his dinosaur excavation projects he got for his Birthday.

Friday the kids did some blackberry picking and apple gathering in the morning with Grandma Jean and then baked some bread into the shapes of dinosaurs.  By mid afternoon we left for Charter Hall.  This is a retreat center partly owned by Rebecca's parents on an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay, AND the site of Rebecca's surprise Birthday.

Fortunately going up there is a normal part of our visits home so Rebecca did not suspect anything.  She had even invited a couple of her friends from College to join up there not knowing that they were also advised of the surprise party.

When we got there her friends Amy and Adam were already there from Tampa with their 2 kids.  (These are the college friends she was expecting.)  I had given up on the idea of having everyone there ahead of time to jump out and say 'Surprise!' so the surprises really unfolded over the next several hours.

The first unexpected arrivals were a contingent from Poughkeepsie New York.  Members of our old small group, Don and Rosaura with their 2 kids and Jeff and Wendy showed up.  Rebecca's jaw dropped when she saw them and at that point we told her that this weekend was organized in her honor.

We had dinner together the first evening (Friday), and as bonus Amy and Adam led us in the jewish Shabbat blessing to begin the weekend's festivities.  It was during dinner though that one of the biggest surprises of all showed up.  That was Zachee, Bridget, and Timmy!  They were very close friends in Burundi who are now living in Toronto.  They drove down for the party.  I don't know who was happier to see them, Rebecca or Oren.  But when Oren saw Timmy his face lit up like I have rarely seen, a mx of shyness and thrill.  Timmy was his very best friend in Burundi for years before they left a year ago and Oren has never fully replaced Timmy with a new best friend in the past year.  They immediately began catching up and leading games for the other kids that were there (by now a large group.)

Because of jet lag we did not stay up on Friday evening, but on Saturday morning we got up and at Rebeca's request I led a morning yoga stretch class on the dock.  Many of our friends joined and the weather was perfect for it.  (We are lucky because it had apparently been beastly hot up until the day we arrived in Baltimore, but it has been almost cool since we have been here.)

After breakfast several families took a boat trip.  I was impressed that several of the kids, including Timmy and Oren both took kayaks out and paddled along with us by themselves.  (The parents were in canoes).  They did have to be towed back, but we paddled several kilometers to a railroad bridge.

When we got back, other guests had arrived, many from the Baltimore area including folks who knew Rebecca as a child in Bangladesh and Maryland, and another set of College friends who Rebeca sang with.  (Mike and Margaret and their 3 kids.)  At this point, with several folks from her college madrigal group (Christopher Wren Singers) Rebecca did have the chance to do some singing with them of old favorites.

There was much swimming and visiting in the afternoon and in the evening we had an enormous Birthday cake, a slideshow of Rebecca's past and the presentation of several gifts.  Among the major ones was a memory book with many pictures and letter sent by friends from her past.  (I had organized this through the secret email account, but Jean printed and compiled it in Baltimore.)

The Poughkeepsie group thrust Rebecca into the 21st century with a Kindle book reader.  This is actually a very practical gift for us in Burundi since she does love to read and books are heavy to travel with and not readily available in Burundi.  She has already loaded it with North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

On Sunday we began the day with a worship service all together.  It was very nice to share together some songs with Rebecca playing the guitar.  We particularly liked one from the Mennonite Sing the Journey book called 'Rain Down'.  Rebecca did say a few words about how overwhelmed she felt in being loved by so many people over so much of her life that would make the time and effort to be with her to celebrate this occasion with her.

We began packing and getting ready to go midday and did some final photos with different groups of friends.  I am including many photos here and have a link to a picasa web site here.  (Rebecca's 40th Charter Hall) for anyone who wants to see more.

We left in the early afternoon and returned to Baltimore where we are currently staying at Dave and Jean's house.  This week is full of doctors and dentist appointments for all of us but we will be leaving again Friday for a vacation with my family on North Carolina's outer banks.

I probably won't post again for several weeks, but look forward to seeing friends in Poughkeepsie, Akron, PA, and elsewhere in the days ahead.  Back in Bujumbura August 22nd.

Bonus Photo:  Most of the group that was there are in this photo.