diff --git a/crates/orchestrator/src/orchestrator.rs b/crates/orchestrator/src/orchestrator.rs
index 8529848..6acfeed 100644
--- a/crates/orchestrator/src/orchestrator.rs
+++ b/crates/orchestrator/src/orchestrator.rs
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ pub struct Orchestrator {
     senders: HashMap<String, channel::Sender<OrchestrationMessage>>,
 }
 
-pub const SHOULD_CHECKPOINT: bool = true; // THIS WILL BE MOVED INTO CONFIG
+pub const SHOULD_CHECKPOINT: bool = false; // THIS WILL BE MOVED INTO CONFIG
 
 /**
  * 1. Keep track of checkpoint per source.
diff --git a/examples/examples/simple_aggregation.rs b/examples/examples/simple_aggregation.rs
index 60c3221..2fe1306 100644
--- a/examples/examples/simple_aggregation.rs
+++ b/examples/examples/simple_aggregation.rs
@@ -18,10 +18,6 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         .init();
 
     let bootstrap_servers = String::from("localhost:9092");
-
-    let ctx = Context::new()?
-        .with_slatedb_backend(String::from("/tmp/checkpoints/simple-agg-checkpoint-1"))
-        .await;
     let mut topic_builder = KafkaTopicBuilder::new(bootstrap_servers);
 
     // Connect to source topic
@@ -36,7 +32,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
         ]))
         .await?;
 
-    ctx.from_topic(source_topic)
+    let _ctx = Context::new()?
+        .with_slatedb_backend(String::from("/tmp/checkpoints/simple-agg-checkpoint-1"))
+        .await
+        .from_topic(source_topic)
         .await?
         .window(
             vec![col("sensor_name")],
diff --git a/py-denormalized/src/context.rs b/py-denormalized/src/context.rs
index 6e1740f..7e2372f 100644
--- a/py-denormalized/src/context.rs
+++ b/py-denormalized/src/context.rs
@@ -51,23 +51,27 @@ impl From<PyContext> for Arc<Context> {
 impl PyContext {
     /// creates a new PyDataFrame
     #[new]
-    pub fn new() -> PyResult<Self> {
+    pub fn new(py: Python) -> PyResult<Self> {
+        let rt = &get_tokio_runtime(py).0;
+        let fut: JoinHandle<denormalized::common::error::Result<Context>> = rt.spawn(async move {
+            Ok(Context::new()?
+                .with_slatedb_backend(String::from("/tmp/checkpoints/simple-agg-checkpoint-1"))
+                .await)
+        });
+
+        let context = wait_for_future(py, fut).map_err(py_denormalized_err)??;
+
         Ok(Self {
-            context: Arc::new(Context::new()?),
+            context: Arc::new(context),
         })
     }
 
-    fn foo(&self, _py: Python) -> PyResult<String> {
-        println!("Fooooo");
-        Ok("foo wtf".to_string())
-    }
-
     fn __repr__(&self, _py: Python) -> PyResult<String> {
-        Ok("__repr__ PyContext".to_string())
+        Ok("PyContext".to_string())
     }
 
     fn __str__(&self, _py: Python) -> PyResult<String> {
-        Ok("__str__ PyContext".to_string())
+        Ok("PyContext".to_string())
     }
 
     pub fn from_topic(