“I don’t know if I can find any injera and ketchup for you right now.” He busted up laughing, and I smiled in return. My mom warned me to expect jokes from friends who knew us from when we lived here. Apparently, I’d been notorious for my obsession with what could only be described as an unusual combination of Ethiopian sour flatbread and ketchup.

I laughed at his delight. “I’m good. I like injera without ketchup these days. I ate on the plane, actually, so I’m fine.”

I got in the car, listening to Tefare’s low and friendly laughter. Once inside, I looked around the interior; the thing had to be at least twenty years old. But other than it looking like the inside of an old oilcan, it ran great. We navigated the streets of Addis, and I stared out the window at what had been my home for the first few years of my life. My feelings about this place had always been bittersweet. It was where my parents said they lived their happiest years, and it was also the place where my father died.

In three years of working for Aid USA, I’d travelled all over Africa, and somehow had managed to avoid an assignment to one of the biggest offices in the continent. I hadn’t sought out coming here. But after my love life went up in flames, a last minute opportunity to help wrap up an impact evaluation seemed like the perfect excuse to get out of DC for a while. And to hopefully do some soul-searching about where I was going with my life.

Tefare looked over at me and smiled as thoughts swirled in my head. “So how does it feel to be in your first home? Are you happy to be back?”

I met his eyes in the rearview mirror as I came up with a response. I couldn’t really say yeah, it should be a good way to put some distance between me and my asshole ex. I wasn’t about to get into a long story about my Big Gay Drama with Tefare.

“It’s good to be here,” I said with a lot more certainty than I was feeling. “I’ve been nervous about the visit. I haven’t been here since I was little, and after Dad died, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to come back.”

No matter how much I’d prepared for it, this trip was a big deal, and a long time coming. I’d always found excuses to take other jobs when postings in Ethiopia came up, because deep down, I’d been scared of how being here would feel. Now that I was, there was a comfort and a familiarity I hadn’t expected.