Transit is the most inconvenient time for me. Of all the things about living in flux that I’ve become accustomed to and take in stride, being in transit between places – the time and space between morocco to libiera and Liberia to Italy for instance – is maddening. Packing for different purposes, one eye in the “here and now” with another cocked to the “what might be” down the road.

The smaller transits are a pain too – between this town and the next, figuring out where to sleep and what has to be unpacked only to repack again – but the big ones loom heavy on the horizon. They require coordination between bag storage and bag pickup, transport that accommodates multiple bags instead of what fits on my back.

So while being temporarily back in Liberia is a step closer to Italy, seeing my girls, and finally heading home, it presents a set of challenges to planning that prevent anything from being set in stone. Case in point, my bag extra bag is graciously being stored at a friend’s, I have a ride to my next destination, but I can’t get my bag right now and the ride has a precise departure time. Not picking up the bag now will pose similar problems when I fly out of Liberia only with less time wiggle room.

And the extra bag, a minor inconvenience in a place where I know people (but that doesn’t have reliable mail) becomes all the more cumbersome once I transport it to another country and try to figure out what to do with it between flights.

Whining aside, my excitement is mounting. On the plane from morocco I ran into a man who is headed to work in Liberia – but more importantly, he just left a two year stint in Italy. He gave me a list of “to eats” and reaffirmed what folks keep saying…the food is spectacular.

So this transit, like all transits, makes the next great thing possible. In that light, if I have to work a little mojo to get my stuff and myself ready for Italy, I’ll put it in the proper perspective and smile as I try to figure out if the Brussels airport has affordable long-term storage.

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