We are on the move!

After months of planning for our move to Botswana, the time has arrived. Way back in March, Rishi was offered a two-year teaching appointment in the Engineering school of the University of Botswana. In April, we visited the campus, met Rishi's potential colleagues, and acquainted ourselves with Gaborone, the Botswana capital where we would be living. While in Botswana, we also spent a few fabulous days at a safari camp in the Okavango Delta. We had a great time and everyone we met was warm and welcoming. After returning home and weighing up all the pros and cons, we decided that Rishi would accept the offer and we would embark on a two-year adventure abroad, beginning in August, at the start of the University’s academic year.

The next few months were busy ones, as we planned for the move. Though we seriously considered selling our Boulder home, we finally opted to rent it out. For every item of our vast accumulated stuff, we had a decision to make: store it at the movers (almost all of the furniture), store it in the basement spaces that our tenants aren’t using (all of the kitchen stuff and winter clothes), take it with us to Gaborone, give it to charity, sell it on Craig’s list, or throw the darn thing away. On top of that, we had to deal with selling cars, cancelling subscriptions and services, arranging to pay bills and vote from abroad, and dozens of other details.

In late July, Rishi headed out to Botswana to prepare for the start of the school year and move into the furnished apartment that we’ll be renting for at least our first three months. He’s also purchased a car, opened a bank account, set up a cell phone, and managed other details to ready our new home.

Meanwhile, I finished up the move out of the house and prepared it for the tenants’ August 1 arrival. Even as they were moving in, I was frantically stashing the last of our stuff into the basement storage spaces, tossing garbage bags into the car for a trip to the dump, and toting my mostly packed suitcases over to the home of our wonderful next-door neighbors, the Diamonds, where I’d be staying for a few days while I tied up loose ends and prepared to join Rishi in Gaborone. I’ve got to say that it felt really strange – sort of being in limbo – staying next door while somebody else was living in my home of 18 years.

That's a lot of stuff in our basement storage room!

 

But now I am truly on my way. As I write this post, I’ve completed an overnight flight from Denver to London Heathrow, and am waiting for my next flight to Johannesburg, then on to Gaborone where Rishi will pick me up at the airport.

I need to send two special thanks: first to the Diamonds for hosting me the last five days and second to our daughter Lisa for all of her help with the move.