With my departure drawing near, just over a week away, I’m finding myself once more on “Team USA,” a little apprehensive about my impending transition back to “Team Kenya.” Honestly, it’s kind of great here. I can do pretty much whatever I want whenever I want to: I can stop for a fancy coffee with way too much sugar and just as much caffeine full of never-thought-to-combine-before flavors on any day of the week. I can eat fast food. Literally fast. Even the sit-down restaurants here bring a meal to your table in no more than fifteen minutes, and if it doesn’t come that fast, you can bet an apology for the delay is on the way. I can drive a full 70 miles per hour on the highway instead of maxing out around 55 miles per hour or slower, stuck behind huge trucks or, heaven forbid a donkey! I can even drive that car with nothing more than a single finger on the steering wheel, the cruise control rocking, trusting the other cars to do as I expect. I can go to an art museum, to various live events, see fireworks, go kayaking, biking, for ice-cream (don’t get me started on ice-cream…), then to the gym to work it off. You name it, America has it!

Set aside the luxuries of American living, Team USA contains something much more valuable- so many people I love, which has doubled in number during my time away as I’ve been meeting, snuggling, and falling in love with infant after infant and toddler after toddler, the kids of friends, former coworkers, former roommates, cousins, and yes, even a new nephew on the way. The ease with which I can text a friend and have plans settled in less than five minutes is mind boggling. The number of people I’ve sat with, eaten with, rejoiced with and shared with is staggering to me. And in just over a week, I get to once more leave it behind- and it’s hard. I’m going to miss the simple ease of living in my home culture, and even more the close proximity to so SO many people I love so dearly (a few of which are pictured below <3).

It was hard leaving the first time, over three years ago when I first packed my bags for an adventure across the world, ironically enough, also during an Olympic summer as the games of 2020 had been delayed a year. I found myself during a three week orientation program sitting in a conference room in the evenings marveling at surfing, a sport I’d never watched before, and cheering as a Kenyan runner did really well in their race. During the opening ceremonies, cheers for countries I’d never heard of erupted in the room I’d been in as there were citizens and residents of so many more places than just America gathered around a projector screen.

In 2021, Simone Biles unexpectedly dropped out of the games for something called “the twisties.” Essentially as her body hurdled through the air, she lost her orientation. She couldn’t control where she was going, couldn’t see the floor, didn’t know how to land. I’m no expert, so don’t quote me on that not-technical definition, but it’s a good analogy for how I felt walking into this major life change, things were spinning all around me. There was a thrill, an anticipation of what was to come, but the landing pad was unknown. There was some fear that I’d land wrong, lose my footing, or even end up with some kind of serious injury (remember- analogy, not like, a real injury or anything!). I felt a little like I’d been training for years, I knew how to teach, I was confident in my love of teens, my experience with teaching and summer camp made me believe RVA would be an excellent fit. I had the greatest coach in the world, well, out of this world really as I knew my Heavenly Father wouldn’t steer me wrong- that He knew this training would lead me to stick the landing, even as I was unsure hurdling through the air.

This time around, Simone Biles is in the games once more. She is praised for having the highest difficulty level ever in her highly practiced vault routine, performing something called a Yurchenko Double Pike. What I find truly bizarre is that to my untrained eye, it appears to be a quite easy vault. It’s just a double backflip, right? It lacks some of the dimension of twisting at the same time as flipping, but my untrained eye would be wrong. When doing a little googling though, it becomes clear that the difficulty comes in the power needed for full rotation since straightened legs slow down the velocity of rotation, and the danger level associated with an incomplete rotation which would result in landing on her head or back. The assigned difficulty to this particular vault is so high, that even when her coach stepped onto the mat as a safety measure in a previous competition, resulting a deduction, she still scored higher than any other gymnast in that competition. Same for a step in the landing- still scores higher, that is to say, even when executed poorly, she does well. She has overcome her twisties and was projected to do better than ever in this years games.

I feel a little bit like this going back to RVA. I know what to expect, I can see the ground, know my power, know my rotation. I also know the difficulty level that awaits. It’s not a shock to me this time around, not going to make me question my decision to enter the competition, tempting me to drop out. I understand what it takes to do well. I know that if I need my coach on the mat, He is always right there. He has been instructing me each step of the way, not just waiting on the sidelines to step in if I need rescuing, but actually, already always on the mat with me. God is there to remind me that even if I don’t stick the landing, it is still a success.

But Simone Biles isn’t the only one on the team. Gymnastics does award medals for individual events, but also for team events. I have teammates now I didn’t know before; friends I’ve worked alongside, coworkers that I can re-engage with upon my return that I was just meeting for the first-time last time around. I even have a feral little puppy I’ll need to spend lots of time re-training after months at a farm/kennel running wild with other dogs that I’m excited to reunite with!

Even though I’m on “Team USA” from the joy of having spent so much time reconnecting with friends, reflecting on my time overseas, and rejuvenating through rest, extra time in God’s word, and maybe one or two seasons of a favorite show on Netflix, I’m excited to re-enter the global community that comes with working overseas. No teacher is ever “ready” for summer break to end, but when it comes down to it, I am ready to go home.

Prayer Points

-Please pray for a smooth transition back to RVA. While it has been really nice to step away and I do know what is coming, there is a lot of change happening once more as I work through a number of good-byes in the upcoming week to these people who are close to me.

-Specifics for transition: Please pray as my new roommate (HUGE answer to prayer!!! PRAISE HIM!!!) and I get settled in the house together, I know God is in this since I have so clearly been praying for someone, however any time two strangers move in together, some prayers are helpful! As stupid as it sounds, please do be praying for me as I try to train my dog! There are some specific behaviors that need some intentional training and as much online research as I’ve done, I have very little experience in this 🙂