good-bye and an interesting thank you

Well Mags is off. She is now aboard Delta flying over the ocean to NYC. I will be on that flight in just a few weeks. How exciting! It was of course very hard to see her go but that sadness is tempered a bit b/c I know I will be seeing her in a couple of months. It will be very interesting for us to see each other in our home environment. I wonder how much different we will be. Now that her stuff is out of the house it is time for me to do some serious preliminary packing. I am not one to wait until the last minute for this stuff so I will get everything packed that I won't need between now and when I leave...and then organize what I will be using up until the last day. I am excited to start packing b/c that means I get to head home soon.

Mags left her bicycle for our gardener, Joseph, to have. He rides his bike everywhere and also runs a little bike repair place just down from our house. He was so very pleased when Mags told him yesterday that he could have her bike. It obviously meant a great deal to him. What was interesting is that after he thanked Mags profusely, he turned to me and said "madame, please convey to her my thanks." I am not sure that I have really heard that before and was a tad confused at why I needed to do that when he has just done so. But it is a sign of respect and immense gratitude for him to ask me to do that. What he is saying is that I, as the "owner" of the house and being older than Mags, should express my thanks and his thanks for the wonderful gift she gave him. I am called "madame" by Joseph and our guard, Kwasi, b/c I am the "employer". It is weird but that's the way it is and so they see me as in a position of authority so to speak over Maggie. That isn't really accurate but that is the perception. So that is why Joseph asked me to thank her - to show her how very grateful he is. It is a neat little thing and I don't think we have anything quite like it in America.

Well I continue to wrap up things in the office. By next week I should have the last 2-3 "big" items completed and that will be really great. I hope it will save Lee and Michelle a lot of hassles and also help the person coming in to take my place.

Off to work and pack....