We Who Are About to Embark on an Awesome Journey Salute You

For those of you who know me well, the preparation to get to this point has been excruciatingly slow, expensive in more ways than one, filled with highs and lows, and most certainly coloured with all the mundane and gory details that accompany the likes of planning for your final trip to some afterlife. (I won't again mention the tooth extraction incident where I screamed like a monkey as the anesthetic wore off somewhere between the slicing of the gum with the scalpel and the grinding of bone with the saw)! And although it took me 45 years to get from what was initially just a young kid's yearning to be a part of something bigger instilled by the words of JFK, to this time when that same young person is somehow transcended into a grown-up who can fulfill the commitment to serve in the Peace Corps, still, I am so very grateful that I am finally about to realize the gravity of the dream that is now about to unfold. Nonetheless, it truly seems as if I needed one more week to say "La Revedere" to all of you who have made my life so rich. Thanks for all the sendoffs, hugs, kisses, shows of emotion, gifts, and precious pieces of yourselves that I will take with me always. It is my sincere hope that this detour from my Charleston life will be enlightening and joyful, filled with experiences that are enriching, challenging, and long-saved in memory. Good or bad, rough or smooth, communal or savoured alone, I look forward to sharing a few of my Peace Corps experiences with you.