Leaving KC, going to ... ROME!

We are preparing to leave Kansas City and our dear family and friends.

We loved seeing (my sister) Marilyn and Duane and son Peter in Des Moines.  Marilyn's hair is growing back in beautifully now that she's done with chemo, and she's getting excellent 'reviews' from doctors about her progress. She will have one more scan (PET?) to confirm, but she's back teaching and happy to be there.

We enjoyed being at our Santa Fe congregation meetings, and seeing dear ones - Olga, the Rojas family, Lourdes, Anita and Juan, a first baby for the Kekos, the Balderramas, Selina and her family, Walter and Rocio, Diego, beautiful and smart Kimberly, Jairo ... and just SO many more!  We missed seeing others, like Lidia and Abi and Javier, and more.

While here, I started some lists of things I notice that I enjoy while I'm here, and so on.  Here goes!

What I am enjoying about USA 

Seeing loved ones

Clean water from tap

Reliably hot water (sometimes ours is hot - solar heat - sometimes not)

Sunsets (we live behind mountains and rarely see much color)

Carpet (tile is sooo much more practical down there!)

Chipotle restaurant, Cinzettis, and more

Autumn leaves (we saw a few)

Milk (milk in plastic containers in Guate is reconstituted from powder, so we just buy powdered Nido now) 

Wide, flat streets, well marked streets and locations

Products being available

What I'm not enjoying

Rude people

Noise 

Rushing

Shopping (though it has been necessary)

Prices

Not much autumn color this year! 

What I miss

Mountains

Smiles

Friends back home in Pana

Authentic feeling of Pana  (Life there is so... real. Can't describe better than that.) 

People being able willing to do things for themselves or to repair rather than replace

We are heading out to the airport this morning for our flight to Rome! The flight is from KC to Chicago, then at 5:30ish we leave Chicago and arrive in Rome 9:30 in the morning (Rome time), which is 2:30 in the morning KC time.  I'll try to sleep on the plane then just stay up the day in Rome to reset my body clock. Mark and Catherine (Cat) Richardson will fly in and arrive in the evening Tuesday. We'll be there four days or so, then on the cruise Saturday morning!  Will post again with photos when I can!