Monday, May 26, 2008

The Old Apartment

Kristy finished her last 2 weeks at her job last week, I have not seen her happier in a long time. It's unfortunate that she grew to dislike that place so much. I am glad she is happy, that is all that matters.

We had a going away party on Saturday! It was great fun! There were some absent faces, people we very well may never see again, especially because Ohio will only be a place a visit - briefly - from now on. Kristy and I have our eye on Colorado after our service, we shall see. Back to the party, I wanted to take pictures and start my flicker account but alas I found myself with drinks in hand and not a camera. People said some extremely nice things to us, about us. It was a very touching thing to have so many people tell us they will miss us and wish us well. Kristy's biological parents even showed up. One of the best parts of the whole shin dig was there was NO DRAMA.

I have to throw a special shout out to Leslie C. for providing 90% of the amazing Lebanese food, she has no idea how much that meant to Kristy and I especially because of familial obligations she was not even able to attend. Thank you Leslie your kindness to me has always left me in awe. Me dear ol mum deserves some props too. She, provided the beverages without alcohol in abundance. Props to Lisa H. my dear cousin who has grown to be quite an amazing young woman drove my drunk butt to the store and helped me restock - she would not take no for an answer. I know that no man is an island and this weekend reminded me that there are people who love Kristy and I. Thank you to everyone who attended and wished us off.

Kristy and I are moving out, I hope t0 accomplish quite a bit today. We plan to not live here after this Thursday. Our apartment complex is giving us the shaft; minus lube that costs extra. We will be happy to put this part of our life behind us and start our adventure. We will not have interweb of our own until we return (unless the interweb fairy visits me in Mauritania).

I am wrapping up the school year, its hard to care when the kids don't and I have so much on my plate. These last few weeks have been so hard and I am so ready to move on. If I can teach at Robinson I can teach anywhere.

For about a week we will live with my seester Shannon. From there Kristy is heading to Colorado to see Debbie and I am going to Philly to visit Pops and Jeremiah. We will be departing separately to Atlanta and be reunited where we will meet the other volunteers in our group.

Oh! there are some new links on the side including: snail mail (non electronic mail) & care package ideas. Send us stuff, heck you don't even have to wait anymore. If you send it now, Kristy and I will be there before the package. The kids with the most mail are the coolest, and you know you want us to be the coolest people in Mauritania.
You can make this happen.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Surf Wax America

Our apartment has a hollow feeling, we no longer have fuzzy friends here. Its hard, I see them out of the corner of my eye, I expect that they are sleeping on the couch or on the bed, I still look to feed or water them, and I wait for their calls to wake or go to bed. I had hoped that it would not have been this hard, it feels a lot like losing Isis all over again. My only consolation is that they are with good people, I mean truly good people. This family opened their home to our cats for 2+ years agreed to take care of them the way that we do.

Mark and Chelsea THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I was given a choice to have a different job while in the Peace Corps! I was offered the opportunity to be a Teacher Trainer instead of doing TEFL. My inbox this morning said that my PC Account had been updated, I scoured but couldn't find any job description stuff. I know its a bit premature because I haven't been given the position yet but the opportunity is newsworthy enough to blog about. I could help write syllabi's, lessons, and textbooks for the whole country's English language programs. This is mind boggling! Unfortunately this means that I will not be teaching students unless I have a second job teaching, but I think that this is a fantastic thing and I will let it ride if it happens.

What this would mean for Kristy and I, is that I would need to be in a Regional Capitol. A Regional Capitol is like a State Capitol but I am unsure if Mauritania has states, I think its only Regions. This also increases our chances at having some basic amenities like electricity. It will make our cost of living a bit higher, but leave us with all things that come with living in a larger city as opposed to a small town.