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Farewell, Papua

And just like that, two years are up. It's like they went by in the blink of an eye. A year really isn't as long as it used to be!

I said goodbye to my coworkers at Adventist Aviation a sunny August morning and then headed to airport to make the journey out to Jakarta one more time. The last few days I'd been very conscious that I was experiencing all my "lasts" - last time having Friday night worship with my housemates, last bite of dragonfruit, last walk out on the runway at night. Now it was the last time to sit by the window seat and see Doyo Baru slid
ing past the wing. Well, maybe one day I'll go back to visit. As I told my friends and colleagues during staff worship the day I left, I felt like I was leaving family behind now.

The journey home was a mixture of the familiar and the foreign. Domestic planes were full to the gills while the international planes were half empty. Jakarta's airport restaurants were open so I was able to get a plate of nasi goreng for supper, but the check-in agent for JAL warned me that everything in Narita airport was closed, so to make sure to pack some food. He was right. The place was dead and eerily quiet.

Almost home. Flying the red, white, and blue

A bleary bunch of hours later I was finally on my last flight to Sacramento. Strange feeling it was, realizing I hadn't been

in the U.S. since 2018. But as I stepped off the plane back into California, it was a good feeling. Coming down the escalator I surveyed the familiar baggage hall where so many other journeys had reached their completion. I was back. A few minutes I saw my sister coming through the doors. I was home.

It's been more than a month now since I arrived back in the U.S. It's all been a whirlwind and I'm just a single guy who is still in between jobs - I can't imagine what it must be like for families with kids to transition back to their home country and have all the huge hurdles and hoops to navigate. I realized how blessed I was to have home to go back to and no initial commitments that I had to meet. It was really good to have the time be able to start getting set up for life in the States again: cell phone plan, health insurance, online fall semester class, getting the car running again. 

Ah, yes, the car. What an amazing car that little Suzuki has been, first being our family car, then my sister's car, and finally mine. Then the poor thing sat completely unused for 2 whole years and I wasn't quite sure how to get it safely started again. But with the help of my amazing neighbor, we changed the gas and put new fuel in and it's been running like it never was parked for 2 years! Thank God for my own wheels again and such a faithful car.

And where does this all bring me? Well, the latest chapter has landed me in Benton, Kansas. I'm writing this blog post at a place called Prairie Air Services where I'll be staying for the next couple weeks. For what? Well, for the past 11 years I've flown planes with one single engine. It's time to add a second engine. Multi-engine rating, here I come!

Stearman Field, 1K1