Ma has been in the DMV (DC/Maryland/(Northern)Virginia) area since April 8 for training. It has been a wonderful experience for foodies like us since there are restaurants from pretty much everywhere. It’s like the foodie equivalent of the Field of Dreams: if you build it, they will come. It has also been fantastic being in the same geographical location with her “chosen sister,” with whom we’ve been spending many of our free weekends. That she is also a foodie is an added bonus.
We went on lots of road trips and discovered conveyer belt sushi; countless brunch venues; and restaurants featuring Balkan, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Georgian, Ethiopian, Somali, and Halal cuisine, to name just a few.
After a six-week State Department Foreign Service orientation, Ma had a six-week tradecraft class, followed by a number of shorter training programs particular to the job she’ll actually be doing once she gets to post in August.
Our time here in the DMV is winding down, with the countdown to departure to post now at less than a month. Less than a month to get SO much done! Ma took a quick break from doing online classes from our apartment to do those online classes from home home, giving us the opportunity to see Pops and The Girl (her adult daughter) one more time before we leave.
Pops is staying here in the US for the first tour for a number of reasons, including the facts that their dog and other cat are, at 15, too feeble to fly all the way to Africa and Pops’ job is remote — the power grid and internet are just too unstable in Niger for his needs. It’s so bad, Ma probably won’t be able to play any of her computer games! So yeah, that’s pretty bad. At any rate, I’m just glad that Ma has me to keep her company.
But I digress. Pops is driving up a few days before we leave to help with other cat wrangling, but otherwise, when we head back to the DMV tomorrow, it will be the big goodbye.
And so, after many years of promising to leave the South once The Girl finished school, Ma is finally acting on those promises. So to Knoxville, I wish you a big ol’ joyous goodbye, au revoir, and ban kwana*!!
* Ban kwana = goodbye in Hausa
