Out of Malawi…(Better) be home soon!

Hiya from JoBurg where we’re on a long layover between flights and I’ve managed to find a computer out of earshot of the vuvuzuela honking that pervades, seemingly, all of southern Africa at the moment due to the World Cup here.

Sadly, not only am I now without iPhone (friggin’ AT&T bastardos), but on Friday, without warning, my Macbook Pro laptop died. We had it checked at the iStore here in JoBurg (their version of the Apple Store) and … no dice. No idea what happened.

So, I (this is Falsani if you hadn’t already gathered) am totally off the grid. And I don’t like it. Not one bit. So much to blog. So many pictures to share and video and columns to write and send to my patient editor in Washington, and and and …

Blerrrrrrrrrg.

We depart JoBurg in about six hours for an overnight quick flight (in relation to what comes next) of about eight hours up to Dubai, where we then have another 24-hour layover before the last leg of our journey home: the whopping EIGHTEEN-HOUR flight from Dubai direct to LAX.

It’s a 777 and we have seats that are, we believe, not in the middle of the middle section like they were on the way over. But that’s a long haul in coach and Emirates has been a disaster in terms of customer service. If they came through with some amazing grace toward our family on the way home, it would go a long way to repairing the damage they’ve done and that I intend to share with the world once I’m computer-attached again, rested and have re-gathered my bearings.

Please pray for us. We’re all a little under the weather – Mom the most. Seemingly everyone in Blantyre had a bad hacking cough and head cold the week before we left and we got it. We’ve got meds out the wazoo because the one easy thing to get in Malawi is medicaiton (unless it’s ARVs for AIDS babies) and we have cold medication with codeine (over the counter!) etc, which should ease the discomfort for us on the long flights home.

I have never been so happy to leave a place as I was yesterday leaving Malawi.

That drive to the airport in Blantyre – boy did it bring back memories.

The last time Maury and I made that drive was almost three years ago and we had to leave Vasco behind. It broke my heart. This time, our boy – our legal and forever son – was with us in the van and in the plane and now here in South Africa, where he’s playing XBox in the next room after having toured part of JoBurg and then Soweto this afternoon. Very moving. If it weren’t for what happened in this place 20-some years ago, I doubt we would ever have met this boy and become his parents. We stood there before a memorial in Soweto, in front of the church where Archbishop Tutu has preached, near the road that Madiba walked when he was freed from prison after so many years to greet the world with a heart free of hate and filled with grace, and we were so thankful, so grateful for those who paved the way long before we set foot on this wondrous and cruel continent three years ago.

Thanks be to God, today, for these African fathers (and mothers, of course) who brought us to this place of peace and reconciliation. Thank God for mercy, grace, joy and connections that we would never, ever make if left to our own devices.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy/Poppy Falsani, Papa Possley, Rebbe Allen, Uncle Dave, Uncle Veen, Uncle Davidy and Uncle Bubba and to all the fathers out there reading this.

Happy Father’s Day, from Cat (Yusuf) and us …