The best things happen when you're gone

Of course when you'll be moving, suddenly you get all the good invitations. We've already been invited to two new year's eve parties, but we won't be here.
And now we find out that there will be a new hotel opening in Grand Bereby, by the same owner as the Italian restaurant we have been going to every Sunday for nine months now.
They're even putting a bar on the beach.

Ugh... all the good things happen when we're gone.

moving

As if I had a sixth sense, the day has come: in a little over a month we'll be leaving Ivory Coast. For good? Who knows... maybe we'll come back in a couple of years. At least here I would want to come back, whereas in Cameroon that wasn't really on the top of my list and I was glad to go.

So how am I feeling? Right now pretty good. Really excited about the prospect and happy to find new dwellings... Also very happy to leave a rather poisonous social situation. But I have to admit it really hurts too.
I have grown to love this country, and its people. I have found my way...
I must admit - in a way - I have settled.

And where it really stings is that we will be leaving Mariam, our nanny/cook. She has been like a second mother to my child and we wee rather close. I don't know how my daughter will cope with leaving here for good.
We have already told her we would be moving to another country and we woudn't be coming back, but that's rather abstract for a two year old. She must aprehend something, because she's very clingy the last couple of weeks...
I dread the day I have to pack her room.

So in a while it will be all boxes again (I've already started, but really in slow motion). And then we'll have a long holiday in Belgium. And then my husband will be leaving us again to go to our new home before us... ugh.

We're not sure of the destination yet, so I'll let you know in due time.

Sedentary??? Or not?

I don't write here anymore... well, if you're a regular here, you might already know that. There's numerous reasons for this...

I had a conversation with my husband's boss a while back, he is an older man, on his way to retirement and has spent nearly his entire career in Africa. He said he used to keep journals... when he was traveling a lot, and they became pages and pages of text, filled with experiences and sensations. Then he bacame more stable, got to live on plantations... and the writing stopped.

I guess that's what kind of happened with this blog.

On the one hand I got different interests - before this blog was the only hobby I kept, next to some crafting and cooking - now there's the little one and I have a million projects I am working out.
But on the other hand... I have been feeling rather sedentary. Even though I have been living in Ivory Coast for less than two years, it kind of feels like I've seen and experienced everything that the region has to offer.
I've almost finished my house... Time to move, no?

And yet it's not like nothing happens. The last couple of month have been particularly trialing for our family. Our dog probably has epilepsy, we had several hospital trips for the little one (button up the nose, severe fever, dislocated nerve), and I had my own medical scares. And all that was combined with a general unhappiness and an awkward group dynamic on the plantation.

But I don't like to write about this kind of things, they are too days of our lives... So I don't write.

But I bet I'll have a lot to write about soon :)