April 20

​I have been staying in this town now for about six weeks. I am boarding with a family in a traditional courtyard house. In the inner courtyard there is a pump, a washroom and a toilet, storage spaces and a summer kitchen. In the outer courtyard the chickens live, hay is stored, and animals are bought in to overwinter.
 
There are four generations living in this house. There are three very young boys, their mother, who has quickly become my close friend, her husband and his parents, a grandmother and a great grandmother.

​It is my friend’s mother-in-law who holds the strings between the generations and whose approval, or disapproval, determines the family mood. I eat with them in the evening and spend the days walking the town and the surrounding foothills of the mountains. Internet connection is reliable. But I try to limit the time I spend on it.
 
My friends back home are messaging me every day to ask when I will return. They also bombard me with their ideas for the new Apps we should be pursuing. Every day I am pulled by their desire to form again our old partnership.

But I need time alone. It is a rare moment in anyone’s life that one can take a pause. I want to take advantage of it. You tell me. Should I go back?

Today I got a surprise.