Newbies & Arriving

Over the years, I have been an arriver in nine countries spread across five continents.

Landing is the beginning of staying, and in between are the days, weeks, months, and sometimes years of transition!

Arrival has often been the culmination of months and maybe even years of preparation. There have been farewells to family & friends, places & community, houses & belongings, routines & traditions, foods & familiarity. Then there’s that moment of stepping off the plane and going through immigration, where all of a sudden, all of the knowns are replaced with the beginning of so many unknowns. 

I’ll never be a newbie in this place again!

While I’m eager to jump from Newbie to Stayer, arriving can be full of learning, growing, stretching, all wrapped up in mixed emotions. Reflecting on my year of transition from South America to East Africa, I find that my arrival here was complicated by how I left.

Most of the close friends I had made there were moving on to other countries. They were framily; friends who became family.  I said farewell to a community that was so beautiful and welcoming, and to a country full of amazing places to explore.  I arrived not knowing whether I would make deep, comparable friends in this new place.  I

So I entered this little corner of East Africa still grieving the life I left behind. Like so many, the pandemic set in motion a chain of events that led us away from so much I loved, and I landed here with much fear, sadness, and anxiety about what life here might look like.

Instead of exploring and embracing, I retreated and resisted. I missed out on the joys of being a newbie because I was carrying the losses from the last place.

As it turned out, I would find community, and my path crossed with some of the most welcoming people who will be my forever friends. 

Now, as I am getting ready to leave, I’m making up for lost time and trying to cram in all the sights, all the foods, all the memories with all of the people while there is still time. 

While I still carry a little of the losses from all my moves, I am trying to remember to embrace being a newbie, because in the next placement, I will have community, and lamenting for a season is just a reminder that there were people in my life here that I cared about.

Soon, I will be an arriver again, and before I become a Stayer, there will be a season of transition once again!

I want to remember not to be so locked into grieving this place, the people, and the traditions that I don’t lean in and enjoy the excitement of what is to come.