A Few of My Favorite Things

David fishing off the pier at Charter Hall.  --I love the reflection.                                        "The idea of America.”  I first encountered the phrase in Grad. School in a course on American Pragmatic philosophy.   The professor was an African American man, a protégé of Cornell West of Harvard.  What was refreshing was approaching this inquiry without a hint of cynicism and we sought to understand this uniquely American philosophy and the intellectual tradition that has shaped our national values and understanding of ourselves. 

hiking at Oregon ridge, MD

I guess I am reflecting on this because I am once again approaching the final hours of my time here in the US as we continue to pack and get things ready for our departure at 6 am tomorrow morning from Dulles airport to return to Burundi.  I am stealing a bit of time from packing to get something down while I still have fast internet.  I have only written one previous entry about our 4 weeks here, which left us in Kansas City where I was enjoying a family reunion with the Hawkins’ (my mom’s extended family.)

When I came, I had made a mental list of things I wanted to make sure to do or experience when I was here.  There were only 4 things that I have found truly lacking in Burundi.  They were

1)   sushi

2)   mint chip ice cream

3)   honey crisp apples 

4)   one hour crime dramas on TV (like Law and Order)

Still know how to grill!

I expanded the list a bit to include fresh grilled salmon, and Maryland sweet corn once I got here and remembered how much I enjoyed them.  Our capacity to forget the things we loved over time is surprising but probably important in order to adapt to change.  In fact, I am so used to Burundi now that there are things I am missing more there and look forward to returning to. 

I am not going to be able, in a short entry to list all of the things we did chronologically, but in the spirit of recalling the highlights and trying to capture in some way what my own idiosyncratic 'idea of America' is, as one who has been absent for a while, I will make a list here and try to explain the significance of each entry.

1) Wiffleball— There was an experience that refreshed, briefly, my fading great memories of childhood.   One night, toward the end of our KC week when my kids, and brother’s kids went out on the front lawn of the Aunt Binny’s farm house and played wiffle ball.  The parents were sort of the permanent outfield while the kids took turns batting and running bases.  There were, of course, ghost runners, ‘pitchers mound poison’, and other rules that have not changed since I had played.   The best part of it was the time of day.  Wiffleball is best played in the extended twilight of a summer’s evening, with fireflies in the outfield.  The game can easily extend to 9:30 pm before the ball becomes unbattable. 

2)  Fishing--  The kids had some limited experience of this in Burundi with some friends, but going out to the pond on Bill and Binnie’s farm and casting our night crawlers and getting a perch on almost every cast was quite gratifying, especially for the kids.  None of them was over 5 inches so we threw them all back, but David really got hooked and practiced casting in the driveway when we got back to Baltimore quite a bit.  I bought the kids 2 zebco closed faced spinning reels and short rods and we fished a couple more times in Maryland.  We will be taking the fishing equipment back to Burundi this year, but fishing in Lake Tanganyika does not feel the same as standing in the tall grass by a farm pond in the Midwest.

3) Roller Coasters—We did go to one Amusement Park while we were home.  It was fun to let our kids experience something of this nature for the first time.  Worlds of Fun is in Kansas City and it is excellent, extremely well maintained, and one I remember going to when I was a teenager.  We had a dream day when we went--a bit overcast, not too sunny, midweek so there were no crowds.  As a kid it would have been the perfect day for me, one could walk from one ride to another and be at the front of the line for each one.   Oren and his cousin loved the spinning ride where the floor dropped out and did that 4 times in a row.  (Once was more than enough for me.)

There I participated in a very meaningful father-son rite of passage.  Oren had been to a Baptist  Bible school camp the previous week which used roller coasters as a theme for overcoming fear.  (Colossal Coaster World)  He was very keen on going on a real roller coaster after hearing about them.  (He had never seen a real one until this trip.)  He is 8 and met the minimal height requirement so I agreed to take him on the “Prowler”. an older wooden one that was apparently the fastest in the world in the 1980’s.  We went together and it was about as loud and fast and scary as one could want.  I will not forget the expression on his face when we got off.  He was truly terrified and swore he would never do it again--for about an hour, then he began convincing himself that it was not that bad, and soon wanted to go back for another turn.  We had to leave as the day was coming to an end, but we did have a really good together that day.  (I would have bought the picture of us that they snapped but they wanted $12 so I passed.)

4) Museums—We did go to many museums, including a Science museum in Kansas City, and the aquarium in Baltimore.  The museums that have the most significance though are the Railroad museum in downtown Baltimore and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.  Both of these museums remind me of childhood but particularly the latter.  I remember numerous trips to Washington DC to see the museum with the elephant in the entrance and the giant blue whale hanging in the ocean exhibit.  I was also a budding geologist and loved the rock and mineral exhibit, especially the gems, featuring the Hope Diamond.  It is all still there, although there are some changes and it has been spruced up considerably.  Our kids see this as a tradition now as well and were very excited to return this year.

5)  Playgrounds—The best things in life are free, in the US that is.  We frequented several playgrounds—there is one near my parent’s house and another near Rebecca’s parents' house.  There is a creek near the one behind my parents house where you can turn over rocks and catch crawdads, a skill I did my best to teach David, our critter lover.  It was also fun for us to go out and watch soccer practice of our kids’ cousin Miriam.  It is so amazing to see such well maintained public play spaces, with picnic tables, ample parking, and grass on the playing field.

Church—I don’t see why anyone would not want to spend Sunday morning in a church here.   Suburban churches are such bright, clean, aesthetically pleasing places.  My personal preference is an older building with wood pews and red carpeting down the center, a pipe organ and a balcony in the back.  Taking the kids to a welcoming well equipped clean Sunday School class where they are greeted by a friendly competent teacher is a real joy.  US services are so well timed!  Never more than an hour and a half.  We went and visited 3 churches while we were here, Valley Baptist where my parents go, Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren, (Rebecca’s parents), and North Baltimore Mennonite where Rebecca’s brother and sister and we are members.  I did preach once, at Valley Baptist and had a chance to talk about how the experience of Elijah as an exile parallels the experience of some of our brothers and sisters in Burundi.  (Note to PUMC—sorry we could not get up to New York this year, will try to see you next year.)

Charter Hall—This retreat center, in the form of a hunting lodge and dock house (no longer used for hunting) is a long standing Sack family tradition that I have married into and enjoyed for the past 10 years.  It is located on an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay and is probably as close as one can come to the ‘idea of Maryland’ as possible.  It is rustic, and features plenty of space for relationship building and reflection.  Activities are campish--horseshoes, canoeing, fishing, swimming.  We had some friends from New York join us while we are there, Don and Rosaura with their kids Gabriela and Raphael came and spent a weekend with us.  We also had some friends of the family up for a meal.  It was very relaxing and meaningful, especially since we were not able to get up to NY to see our friends there this year.

Mowing Lawns—I jumped at the opportunity to mow 4 times while I was back.  It is said that the olfactory senses are the most directly connected to memory.  The aroma of fresh mowed grass and gasoline on a Saturday morning smells like America to me. 

Friends and Family-- We had a lot of time with cousins.  It is hard to explain the relationship between cousins.  The ones around my age were always like my best friends though I rarely saw them more than once per year.  Whenever we were together it was like we had always known each other.  David and Oren had an extra week with Fletcher, his cousin from Nashville who spent a week with us in Baltimore.  Miriam and Gabriel live here and our kids loved to go over to their house whenever they could.

We also have so many friends here that have known us since our youth in Baltimore.  (Rebecca and I) as we had grown up in the same community (the International Health Community) for much of our lives.  Seeing friends of my parents that we have known from childhood was very special.  (They do follow this blog so I am going to give a shout out to: Louise, Charlene, and Jo especially!)

The list could go on.  Much of it is Summery, because that is the time that we have been here the past 5 years.  Winter is a season that has become more and more hazy to me.  I barely own a long sleeve shirt much less a sweater now.  But summers in the US give me the most images of what my Idea of America is.  Perhaps because, as a third culture kid myself, most of my memories of my childhood here are from that time. 

This year is a bit different though.  Unlike past years, this is the last year we will be coming back for a visit.  Next summer we return for good.  We will have completed our MCC assignment in Burundi at the end of July 2014.  It made this summer feel a bit different.  I have not, in the past, been projecting into the future, thinking about where we might live, what we might do.  It was honestly a bit unsettling.  It is hard to feel excited about it right now since our whole life is in Burundi.  The unknowns in the US make me more nervous than the knowns in Burundi.  Right now, the US is a nice place to visit, but we don’t live there, it does not feel like home.

It is late now and I need to help finish packing.  There is so much more to say.  It was great, but I am glad it is over.  There is just too much to do here.  Too much to see to many people to meet.  Like a delicious Indian buffet with too many entrees, I overdid it and now I feel too full--sort of have a stomach ache.  I hope, when I move back I will remember how to restrain myself with so many choices here.  Remembering how to be selective will be a challenge when we move back for good.