last call

It's that season again - that time of year when everyone leaves Lusaka like it's some sort of natural migration. This time, it seems it's my cohort - all the people who arrived roughly at the same time as me here in Lusaka and now are collectively deciding it's time to move on to different countries and new jobs:

• Megumi - gone as of the holidays
  
• Danielle - leaving tomorrow
• Helen - leaving next week
  
• Josh - leaving in 2 weeks
• Alyssa - leaving in February
  
• Marie - leaving at the end of February

Big sigh. And I guess having not chronicled my generally mundane personal life - which mostly revolves around ultimate frisbee on Saturdays, going to the movies to watch whatever is playing that week, cooking, and the occasional camping - these names probably don't mean a lot. But they're pretty much a >50% chunk of my social network here in Lusaka, and the above is a fairly depressing wartime toll-seeming list.

There is the advent of a new guard of twentysomething expats arriving, but looking at the people who are leaving in the next 2 months really drives home the transience of living abroad. On one hand, you meet amazing people who have incredible experiences to share, plus major bonding living in a crazy place like Africa. On the other hand, the things you share are almost always temporary - and the people you connect with the most you'll probably never live in the same city - or even country - with again. I guess thank goodness for skype?

In any case, always happy for friends moving on to new, exciting things, but there is also a small, selfish part of me that is bummed about realizing that 3 of the 5 go-to friends I know I can always call in Lusaka are about to be much more long-distance calls away. It's hard to begrudge any of that knowing that's the nature of living abroad and that in a few months I'll be making the same decision and transition.

Come April, I guess I'll be adding my name to that list.