Apra's second Journey to Germany

We have reached Germany safe and sound after a smooth, exhausting but still very nice journey. Of course, the main reason for me enjoying this journey in spite of the discomfort in my knee is Apra.

Apra has been excited about going to Germany for a very long time! We told her a few weeks before we were actually about to leave. After that, we shifted our ticket to two weeks later, so she has had really lots of time for anticipation! For many weeks now, she starts a lot of sentences with ‘In Germany,…’!

She remembers quite a lot from her past visit here, one year ago. Of course we have also been telling her and showing her many photos and it kept her memory alive. Ever since we told her that we would be going to Germany soon, she thus talked about the people whom she would meet, named our friends – and their pets – and told what she would do when she would meet them. In the past days her anticipation had become so intense, that she told us at least ten times a day that she would fly to Germany in a plane, that Thomas and Iris would come to pick us up and that we would then eat bread rolls and jam for breakfast.

That is also pretty much how it happened. We started from the Ashram yesterday evening, when it was nearly Apra’s bedtime already. She slept in the car for a while and woke up when we were at the airport – more than excited! When walking through the airport, she shouted out at everything that she saw, pointing around and proudly pulling her little red suitcase behind her!

It was a bit difficult for her to understand why we were not moving whenever we had to wait in queues or at counters like at the check-in, the immigration counter or the security-check. Then she said ‘Let’s go’ and impatiently started walking off three meters only to come back and wait for us.

She watched her surroundings, especially the children around her, took a few rounds on the escalator and once at the gate, she admired the planes outside. Before boarding, she also specified very clearly that she would like to fly in a small plane, not a big one, as she herself was still small. We assured her that we would take the small one.

Once in the plane and off the ground, she fell asleep and only woke up about two hours before landing. We passed the remaining time by eating, playing and reading. When it was time for landing, she wanted to go out and we distracted her until the doors actually opened by further imagining our German breakfast.

It was just wonderful to meet Thomas and Yashendu in Frankfurt and come out into the fresh – if a little bit cold – German air. Apra was so happy to see them and once at home, she simply started playing right away. She is my little hero – it doesn’t matter where we are, as long as we all are fine, she is happy.