Week 28-30: Home

We returned from paradise and within two and a half days packed all our lives into 12 suitcases and a cage. A final visit to Piccolo and a last tour in Medellin with the glowworms, and that's it. We loaded up and set off. The piano and oven were left as a gift for the landlords, in exchange for half a month's rent. We sold Mati's new computer back to the store with a nice haircut. 10 kilos of purchases from IKEA were given as a gift to Lily, the dedicated cleaner, who became our second-hand trader and our representative against the landlords, hoping to manage to get out of the draconian contract soon and not to be sold into slavery because one of the picture frames broke (I glued it with hot glue, hoping they won’t catch me). We boarded a flight to Costa Rica and since then we have been experiencing closure and nostalgia for the beginning of the trip, alongside a sense of disgust and emptiness from excessive beach enjoyment, restaurants, and boardwalk jewelry

We went to see a whale in southern Costa Rica, but she refused to put on a show, so we got dolphins dancing with us as a consolation prize. We went to visit Boaz and Sivan at the school they established here. The children entered and immediately said: it smells like Betia's garden here... We chatted a bit and suddenly two kids from my future class appeared, who had come for a long vacation; one of them is returning to class in a month and was in shock and disorientation from the situation... What a small world

From there we returned to Tamarindo beach in the north, where we surfed six months ago. Yoala went for a day to the office for a final handover and to return the computer - a final cue of feeling missed opportunities. That's it, the last days, spending time by the sea-pool in an atmosphere of Eilat that has lasted way too long

No new insights and my mind is a bit in a fog, so I chose a slightly different perspective for the final column - about a month ago I photographed the kids for a relocation completion project in a “sorry for the question” format. I thought it would provide a nice closure that frames the period in a more balanced way (an extremely partial success). They agreed to cooperate on the condition that I wouldn’t send the video to anyone they know, so we'll settle for a few selected quotes

What strange/annoying things have you gotten used to in Colombia

Mati: Waking up at six in the morning for school

Micha: For Mati

Mati: That you can’t walk around alone

Micha: That I can’t talk to anyone

Mati: For Dad’s nonsense, he actually flew to meet indigenous people, alone. How weird is he

Ophry: For school

What do you miss in Israel

Mati: Everything. That you can just walk. That you can take a bus, get to a random friend’s house and knock on the door

Micha: Everything, friends, family, basketball

Ophry: Everything. Like Mati and Micha. Meeting friends - Arthur and Aldo

What will you miss from Colombia

Micha: A lot of little things, like candies that are here but not in the country, that there is mango all year round, that there are two-day weekends

Mati: Mostly two friends I met and connected with here in Colombia

Ophry: Raspberries with chocolate, raspberries without chocolate, blueberries that I ate before having bolognese pasta

What would you like to achieve before returning

Micha: To say goodbye to friends, to say goodbye to Piccolo

Ophry: Piccolo and that's it

What memorable experience do you have

Mati: A month of freedom in Costa Rica, where we learned to surf

Micha: You were always complaining that you wanted to get to Colombia and start school

Mati: Why are you revealing

Micha: The last Friday of the school year

Ophry: Going to the mall, bowling, and surfing in the sea

What memorable experience do you have for the worse

Micha: When we were at the airport in Costa Rica on our way to Colombia. You ran to get the bags from the car parked in a forbidden place, and I was left responsible for Toto and he was in a panic trying to run after you, it was very stressful

Mati: When we were at a cabin in the jungle that had no walls and was completely open, and I didn't sleep all night

Ophry: Now I'll talk about Micha and Mati - every day when we got home and Mati and Micha complained that they were unhappy at school

Do you regret traveling

Mati: I don’t regret traveling, I learned to appreciate how good I had it in the country, and I also learned English

Micha: When we come back to the country, every time it is difficult for us we can remember that it was much harder in Colombia

Do you regret leaving

Micha (laughing): Dad, are you kidding

Mati (laughing): Okay, I feel sorry for Mom who lost her job that she loved very much, but I am so happy that we are going back to Israel

One tip for anyone going on relocation

Micha: That it's not going to be easy, and take advantage of the first period at school when you are considered the new kids and no one expects anything from you

Ophry: If you come here for relocation then bring with you the Dixit that we forgot at home

That's it

Thank you for reading and supporting

See you in the country