Mail

Yesterday I received my second package. At first the return recipient was only vaguely familiar to me but then Chris-Heijn said, “that’s your surprise!” and Amy said it was from her mom! And then I remembered Amy’s mom had left a comment here early on that she was reading my blog. She sent me something! It was awesome and totally unexpected! So thanks Mama Urban!!

Also, I hear a lot of the parents of fellow G-17ers are keeping tabs here and I just wanted to say your kids are all great and everyone’s doing fine and we are a strong group of people who have made it so far without having lost one yet (a fairly common occurrence in each stage). Keep up the support. We need it.

Today I received my third package. It was from my mom. Mail is such a huge thing here. Whenever we find out there is mail, there is a skipping, running stampede to raid the boxes and envelopes. People who get something have the highlight of their week and the people who still wait are a little down. Thanks for the package mom!

As for the rest of you! Letters, people! Pictures, comics, news clippings, magazines – it’s only .90 for the one ounce! My address is on the right! However, at this point you should start addressing it to PCV, instead of PCT because we swear in in two weeks!!

Which leads me to my next point: WE SWEAR IN IN TWO WEEKS!

I think the general consensus is that people can’t wait to get to site and figure things out and finally have some privacy and control over our lives, but also that leaving each other and the support we provide, even the ability to send and receive calls and text messages for the ones without reseau (service) will be tough.

I have made some great friends here and I’m sure I will write more about that as PST comes to an end and I am lucky in that a lot of the people that I am closest with are within acceptable distances from me. At least I am not on the coast with my closest friends straddling the border with Mali clear across the country.