October 13, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Okay I know its not Christmas but that’s what today felt like here: shuttle day. When the shuttle driver saw me collecting my packages he said “oh tu es tres content maintenant n’est pas?!” Which means you are really happy right now aren’t you? I got Packages and/or letters from: Mom and Dad, Cory, Meaghan and Jilly, Elly, and Grandma and I want to give a great big heartfelt thank you to all of you, it was amazing! Boxes and letters and cards and magazines and so much more, so much more than I could even have hoped for so here are some individual personalized thank you’s:
Mom and Dad: Thank you so much for everything! You remembered everything, even the pictures for me to draw and the first thing I saw when I opened the first box was a jar of peanut butter and that was all it took, I was smiling ear to ear. I read every one of your letters mom, dad where were you on that? Too good to write to your little girl? Get on that! The letters are my favorite part, I love to hear what is going on there and I would love also to see photos if have any you could send! Thank you also for the water bottle, that’s amazing, its got the life straw water filter built right in! So cool! And how could I forget, the puppy treats! Puppy loves them, I gave her three and made her sit for them and she did, usually she won’t but I told her since they were special American dog treats she had to sit to get them and she did! I took a picture of me feeding them to her so you can see, but she looks creepy in it because her eyes are glowing yellow. At any rate shes perfectly content and sleeping on my feet right now and its adorable. You’ll never know how happy it made me to pick through my boxes of silly goodies, so thank you thank you thank you!
Cory: You have outdone yourself again, I was incredibly excited to get the letter in the first package with the rock from the grand canyon and the Sedona rock and the memory card full of amazing music which I’m listening to right now and the letter about your time at home, tell Eddy and Ali that I said hello and that I hope all is awesome in NH and happy belated graduation, I’m so sad I missed an old fashioned Peru woods party! Tell anyone else you talk to that I say hello too! The second package, the one you sent from school, there are no words to describe my happiness with that package. Obviously the i-pod (Awesome name choice by the way, Dayanand is the perfect next name in the saga of my ipod owning history, for being such a worldly ipod right from the get go!) is amazing and I’m am so lucky to have you and I know that but you went above and beyond by filling it with amazing music and movies and tv shows and everything, my regionmates have figured out how to watch them on the computer and are watching the Bourne Identity right now, I was too but I couldn’t concentrate on a movie with so many thank you’s running around in my head so I figured I would write this and then watch when I’m done. As if the ipod wasn’t enough, you also stuffed that box to the very top with so many amazing things! I’m very excited to have tea tomorrow morning that’s not served in a shot class and composed of 50% sugar! The spices are great and were immediately added to the collection we have going here that I have been going through so quickly with all my cooking that it felt awesome to be able to contribute back. Oh what else, the camelpak, I’m told will be great for carrying extra water on long taxi trips and I also have now made it a personal goal here to go on a camel trek in the sahara while wearing my camelpak and the moment I do you will be sent photos. The baby toys are going to a baby that lives with the family Emily, my site mate, lives with. The baby’s mother died during or shortly after childbirth and the baby is now being watched by Emily’s family during the day and spending the nights at the neighbor’s house, which I gather was her mother’s compound when she was still alive. She is so tiny, she just learned to roll over a few days ago and has been getting into all sorts of trouble ever since so I can’t wait to give her some toys to keep her busy. Thanks so much for all of it again, I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to have a brother as awesome as you, all the other volunteers are jealous!
Elly-belly!: I am better now that I have gotten your card and I found your letter adorable and hilarious! I love you tons and I’m so thankful for your thoughtful card and package fully of yummy granola bars and the like, I had no idea it was coming and the surprise made it that much better! Your card is going up on my wall for sure and the next time I get all artsy (almost once a day here…I have a lot of time on my hands) I’m making you a card and sending it out your way! Love you tons! I hope RPI is treating you well! Hugs and Kisses!
Meaghan and Jilly: Your package brought much mystery and much more happiness into my life. I can only assume that the card you sent separately went with this package because there wasn’t one in this package but the envelope didn’t fair very well and theres a chance it could have gotten away…I can also only assume that the M&Ms got away because I’m guessing you didn’t send an empty bag, but that’s what I got, an empty M&M bag with a little hole in the end…I think it spent a lot of time in the mail room and was visited by little mice friends, or a sketchy local character who was hungry, either way whoever got it probably deserved it a lot more than I do anyway because I have been so blessed to day any more would have been ridiculous! All the other goodies were intact and amazing, right down to the frosted animal crackers that reminded me so strongly of Meaghan Gallagher I almost broke my face in half I was smiling so wide. LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Write again and tell me how your doing, I so love to hear from either one and both of you! I will send you each a card as soon as I can that you will have to staple into the Lamb-gina journal for future smiles! LOVE YOU! XOXOX
Grandma: You’re letter made me so happy! I love that you are trying to be greener and using the canvas grocery bags, and the fact that they are the ones Cory and I made so long ago makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! I’m so happy Jen sends my emails to you, I was hoping you would be kept updated. Its funny to me how my being on the other side of the world has shown me how easy it is to keep in touch with everyone that I used to be so close to that I took them for granted, now I have such an appreciation for family and friends, because they mean everything here, that I’m desperate to hear from you guys way back over there! I hear from Ann and Jen and Kathy more now than I ever did before and I had no excuse not to be in touch, I just never made the time because in the states communication is so easy its completely taken for granted…why would I call or email now when I can do it just as easily any other time? That attitude let me feel okay about barely talking to you guys anymore and I’m sorry but that’s just dumb! You are my family and I hope if I take nothing else from this trip across the ocean, that I will at least learn to stop taking my family for granted and do a better job of keeping in touch! So there you have it, and to anyone else (like you mom, because I know you read every word of all my emails J ) reading this I think you should do the same! Family is family, whether through marriage or blood or adoption or whatever, so don’t let them forget how much they matter to you! I love you Gramma, and I’ll send you another card soon!
Okay, now I’m done with those, so the rest of you can stop pretending like you didn’t read that last part and keep reading here. One more quick thank you, to all those of you who have written me emails, if you have written and I have not responded it is not because I haven’t read them or don’t want them, I just sometimes have limited computer time but I love each and every email I get and I read all of them religiously because it’s the closest thing I have to being there with you guys and it makes me so happy to hear from you, you have no idea! Every time I go into the Peace Corps office and use the computer its like being in Americaland for a little while and it’s a nice break from
Bonjour! Ca va? Ca va bien? Comment allez-vous? Et votre travail? Et vos famile ? Ca va vos famile ? Tu va bien ? Bien alhumdulilah !
Which can be roughly translated as :
Hello! Hows it going? Its going good? How are you? And your work? And your family? How is your family? You are well? Well thanks be to god!
And they’ll say all of that, even if all you say in response is ca va once or twice. So now when I get text messages from my English-speaking host brother from Rosso that say:
“Hello. How are you? You are fine I hope and your family is nice and that you are fine. I hope you are fine. Good bye.”
Its totally normal, and only a little bit funny.
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