A couple of days ago I got the opportunity to visit some of my possessions which have been boxed up since 2007. I took this box of CDs home with me for a joyous reunion with the music to which I listened before I went to Colombia. Now before you say, “But didn’t you have it all on your computer, too?”, I did, but when I changed from a PC to a Mac I found the music files were incompatible. (And I know there are ways of converting files but I could never get them to work.)

But I realized with a pang as I cut the tape that with which I had sealed the box as a naive, hopeful, novice missionary all those years ago, “This means it’s really over.”

I had scarcely thought of these possessions all the time I was away, absorbed as I was with everything that was going on there. I knew that when I was ready to settle in Scotland again, I would retrieve them (and perhaps ask myself why I had gone to the bother of storing them!). That moment has now arrived but in the case of the CDs, I am thrilled to see them again.

I found the soundtrack of the film that got me started thinking about returning to Latin America and to which I listened constantly for a couple of years.

I found this CD, a gift from my first Colombian friends when they visited me some time, by a musician who became a good friend and member of our mission.

And this one, which I bought on my first trip to Colombia on 2006 which has all the typical rhythms from the all over the country. Also much-listened to, but I am not ready to listen to it again yet!

So I am going to start listening to this one which seems like a good bridge between my two realities.