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Our last two weeks in Bakersfield were one of those intense times where a year of living gets compressed into a few days. It began with a round of farewell parties, mostly hosted by our good friends, Charlie and Judi McCan. In the photo at the right our accountibility group, the Finishers, along with good friends Randy & Norma Hamm, are having a last evening together, Interspersed with the parties was the privilege of being commissioned for our new work in Kenya by our home church in all three services.
Later in the final week our focus turned to packing the POD. On Thursday evening 11 friends braved the heat of the afternoon to help us finish wrapping furniture and packing the POD. Amazingly, in three hours over 90% of the packing was completed. The tune from the old Beatles tune "I get by with a little help from my friends" kept floating through my mind. Two of the eleven, Randy Hamm and Paula Strome are wrapping up something with bubble wrap. In the background you can see a piece of furniture that has been wrapped in green wrapping film for its two-year time in storage. I have a video of several of the men wrapping the sofa - quite an intricate dance!
On Saturday the driver came with his flatbed and used "Podzilla" to lift the POD and position it on the truck. Again, about fifteen minutes after he arrived he had pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down around the corner. We spent the rest of the day cleaning the house and enjoyed a last evening with our friends the Coopers at whose whom we stayed from Thursday through Sunday. On Monday morning, one day later than planned we drove north from Bakersfield to Berkeley, carrying with us our bags for our trip to Kenya and 21 years of great memories of life in Bakersfield. The video shows the departure of the POD on its way to Seattle.
