Dead Cow and Malaria Pills...

I just finished packing up my stuff and I figured it was a perfect time to write one last note before Internet access becomes less of a reality in my life. My final evening here in the States was spent laughing with a bunch of other future Volunteers. I love my new family. We come from all over the country and bring such unique strengths. I look forward to getting to know everyone better over the next two years. Tonight, some of us went and ate big, greasy cheeseburgers. It was the first time I have ever ordered a double cheeseburger. I was unable to eat that much dead cow, but I gave it my best shot. It was a fitting sendoff as we depart from the old red, white and blue.

I am convinced that tomorrow will be the longest day of my life. We have to check out of our hotel at 5am, then by 7am we will be waiting at “the clinic” for varied shots and our first dose of malaria meds. The flight to Johannesburg leaves late tomorrow afternoon and arrives Thursday afternoon (that is fifteen and a half hours of airtime). I will officially be in Namibia on Friday at about 5:30pm (Namibia time), and that is when the good stuff begins. I am ready to get this started. It has been great to hear about being a Peace Corps Volunteer, but I am ready to experience it on my own.

Well, it is time to crawl in bed and enjoy my final night with air conditioning. I must admit I do miss Colorado. I miss seeing mountains with snow. I miss everyone at home, but I am really thrilled that I am outta here. Please write me and send me music and books and anything else. Bye for now.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled life…

I am off to the airport today for my three days in Washington then 15+ hours on a plane to Southern Africa. It is not certain when I will be able to check email or get a cell phone number, but my understanding is that it will be after November 3rd. I have learned that once in Namibia I will spend my first two weeks in Okahandja, which is about 45 minutes from Windhoek. It is going to be a hectic couple of months until I graduate and take my place at my permanent site on January 10th. I will write when I can, but it does not mean you folks can’t write me. Anyway, I will miss everyone and I wish you all the best. Go Gamecocks! Go Rockies (although I must admit that I am not much of a baseball fan it has been fun to watch lately)!

Smell ya later...

Firsts and lasts...

A North Carolina Recap: On the flight from Denver, Warren and Chris "classed it up" by hooking me up with First Class seating. I felt "G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S" (minus the champagne, which came later). The Wake Forest game was the ultimate football experience. It was at night, it was cold and there was a trashy fight in the stands (wtb, baby, wtb). Chapel Hill is a beautiful town despite the fact that most people look as if they just stepped out of an advertisement for Ralph Lauren. Della is officially the cutest Carolina fan of all time. Too bad her first game was not the Gamecocks finest football hour as we barely squeaked out a win over the Tarheels. Welcome to Gamecock Football, you never know what you are gonna get. I just hope she missed the Vandy game. Anyway, I also spent some time with Dawn and Mandy, who are long lost favorite cousins of mine. I loved getting to know Dawn and Jon's little ones Lucy and Harris, and I am certain Ford will fit right in with this new batch of Greene young ones. I hope the three of them can have as many fond memories as I have of my time with Dawn and Mandy. Can you recall the lip-sync contests, the easy bake oven, or fighting over who got to comb Mandy’s amazing locks of blonde hair.


Since my return from the Dirrty South, I have been negotiating many firsts and lasts. Today was likely my final sub job at Casey Middle School, which is my favorite place in Boulder (and where I taught). I did not have the chance to say goodbe to everyone I wanted to, but I managed to get some of my students from last year to record video clips to show to my future students in Africa. Of course, this assumes I have the capability to show the clips to them. In addition, I am thrilled that my favorite teacher (the 8th grade LA teacher at Casey) agreed to correspond with me through a program the Peace Corps offers called the Correspondence Match Program. It will be a nice lifeline to a place that is incredibly special to me, and I will miss terribly.


In other news, the reality of what is happening in a few short days is rapidly setting in, and I find that my life is already far removed from the status quo that defined life pre-Peace Corps. As the snow begins to collect in the mountains, my focus would normally shift from mountain biking to shredding some powder on my snowboard. However, this year I sold both of my bikes and packed away the snowboard gear. Hibernation for my winter outdoor goodies is one of the only things that is certain as I prepare for the uncertainties that await. Instead of a season pass, I made some high quantity toiletry purchases at Target that seem odd when taken out of context. Who else can say they bought six boxes of tampons and a mess of razor blades? I am curious what MacGyver might craft from those two purchases. Any thoughts?

Anyway, the tricky part is trying to crack the how-to-pack-for-two-years code. My first round of packing was an exercise in futility. It is fortunate I have wasted many hours mastering Tetris, because it will take some advanced skill to make it all fit by Sunday. Kidding aside, packing has forced me to consider how much I really need in life. There is something liberating about making the decision to let go. I appreciate the challenge of shedding material possessions and replacing it with a more simplistic vision of life. Perhaps it is one of the reasons I joined the Peace Corps.

Halloween at 30,000 feet...

In a little more than 20 days I will board a plane for Washington, DC for what the Peace Corps deems as three days of “staging”. I imagine being herded from meeting to meeting where I will receive more information than I can humanly retain. Yet, I am thrilled to spend a few days back in the town I called home for a few years. I hope to get to Dupont Circle to see the old homestead, and grab some first class Italian at Pasta Mia in Adams Morgan. Oh, but while in DC one must not ignore the greatest Spansh restaurant ever...Lauriol Plaza. Yummers!

According to the official Peace Corps staging schedule, my group (Namibia27) has an appointment at “the clinic” for a round of shots on Halloween morning and then we are whisked to the airport for a 15-hour plane ride to Johannesburg. It’s a unique way to celebrate Halloween, right? We will spend the night of November 1st in South Africa and board a plane to Windhoek, Namibia the following day. After that, it is 27 months of, well, stay tuned because I have no idea what to expect. I do know I am ready to be teaching again. I have been subbing at my old school, and at other schools in Boulder, and I miss having my own classroom. Speaking of things I miss, I am having Tilly and Katie withdraw and I have not even left yet. I am trying to wean myself off my attachment to my dogs, so they are living with Tibi more often. But, I am taking lots of pictures and making lots of little movies of them sleeping, barking, eating and pooping (OK, perhaps I do not need footage of either of them having a bowel movement) so I can experience Tilly/Katie moments while in Namibia.

One last thing…Go Gamecocks! I will attend my final Gamecock football game next weekend as they travel to Chapel HELL to play North Carolina. In the same trip, I will attend my first Wake Forest game as they host Florida State on Thursday night. I am trying to talk Chris into painting his face for the game. Chris, paint your face!

USC Beats UGA in Athens! (A fond memory as we face Kentucky on Thursday.)

Thou Shalt Not Forget Sister Tina...

As the time for me to depart draws ever so near, I wanted to share some interesting facts about mailing packages to Namibia. Thanks to current PCV’s in country, I have included some steps to follow (and some to avoid) when trying to mail me goodies. The first person to figure out how to properly and successfully mail either my dogs or a piping hot Chick-fil-A sandwich (with waffle fries and a cold Dr. Pepper) will immediately be crowned my hero. Check out the info below….

The best method for sending a care package is by simply using the US postal service. I've found that packages sent in a big padded envelope get here much quicker than a box. Boxes take anywhere from 1 month to 5-6 months. It really varies on this one. I think as a rule of thumb, keep it small. My experience with packages has been diverse: 1 padded envelope sent from California got here in 10 days using regular ground mail. Another package sent from NYC using the
more expensive way to send it, got here in exactly 1 week. Other packages took anywhere from 1 month to 2 months.

If for some reason you need something shipped that is expensive or important, I know people have used DHL (there is a DHL office in Windhoek). They take 3 days! But, it's really expensive.....

Anyhoo, the only other thing I wanted to add is that in sending packages via the post office, we've found that it's helpful to "holy" them up -- address them to Father Joe Schmoe, or Sister Jane Smith, and say that they're coming from the Sister [whatever] at Blessed Church of Jesus. Writing holy phrases ("Thou shall not steal," "Jesus is watching," "We miss you at church, Sister Jane!" etc.) on the package helps too. That said, I never got a package or two for the Reverend Mother Elizabeth, so it's not 100% effective, but it helps. On the Contact Info section of my website --
http://www.geocities.com/perkykoalapc/contact.html -- I have more details there. If something's REALLY important (laptop, plane tickets, etc.), then definitely don't send it through the post office.
Use DHL (it's way more prominent there than UPS or FedEx) or... if you hear that another PCV is getting a visitor from the US, have your parents or whatever send the important item to that person in the US, and then he/she can bring it over to you (you can meet in Windhoek or whatever). Bring US postage stamps too -- this way, you can slap them on mail to the US and send it back with a visitor (who just needs to drop it in a mailbox). True, you don't get the funky Namibian stamps or postmark, but at least you know it'll get to your destination!