Snow Balls and Cotton Tails

From Kim

Yup. It snows here. A lot.

And through the experience the last few days of yet another snowstorm we have determined at least one concrete thing about the next 2 years: It will not involve the shoveling of frozen precipitation in any way, shape, or form!!
Buut really....a snow storm on the first day of spring!!!? And with this much snow, we won't see the bare ground let alone flowers until the end of JUNE!!! Yes, its beautiful........................but enough already!!!

I'm sitting here with my ever present copilot, Mr. Kitty Boucher, the handsome but unpredictably malicious badass orange tiger tomcat. I'm listening to NPR while Jonathan plays one of those confounding war strategy games that take 300 hours to play and out of which he somehow gets neverending enjoyment. He's currently conquering Tunisia or Maldovia or someplace and I haven't heard him speak or move for the past 3 hours.

Today was Easter and it was filled with the usual Easter things: Bunny Chocolates, Jelly beans, and far too much Ham eating. AND Yes. I ate ham...and a lot of it. I figure if I'm going to have to eat meat in Africa, I might as well start now and get used to the idea and try to learn how to cook the stuff. And by the way....umm ham is tastey!!!! After 10 years of vegetarianism I'm stepping off the wagon and carefully testing the meaty waters. From all the Peace Corps blogs I've been reading, I'll need to be a lot more flexible with my food preferences or I won't have much to eat.

Jon and I are trying to get used to the idea that in July, after a year and a half of paperwork, beuracracy, and waiting, we will finally be stepping into the adventure we have been longing for. Jon mentioned this in his last blog but I thought I would contribute. At the very begining of this whole process we were told that I would be working in a health extension and Jon would be doing Agroforestry. At first this shocked us as neither of us had any experience in either field. But we rallied and researched and got ourselves accustomed to our new identities over time. With a last minute switch a week ago we have had our placement changed and now it seems that we have lost something very dear to us...something that existed for us in only the most rudimentary and yet very distinct way before. This nacent vision passed out of our lives in an instant and I feel that we are mourning for it in a way. I think we just need some time for the formulation of new identities and we will take that first step tomorrow when we accept our placement in Guinea, West Africa September 28, 2008-September 27, 2010.

In the words of Garrison Kiellor
"Be Well, Do Good Work, and Keep in Touch"

Big - albeit convoluted - News

From Jonathan

After weeks of waiting on edge for word from the PC about our prospective assignment, Kim and I received news four days ago that we were eligible for placement abroad. Of course we couldn’t access any of the information online. So we waited for the paperwork to arrive through the mail. To place this in the proper context you need to realize the a few weeks ago we were made aware that we had been found ineligible for service in the original program we had been anticipating (of course the PC staff wouldn’t tell us what country we were rejected from so Kim and I logically deduced that we were denied either Avalon or Agartha). Since then our placement officer went about shopping us around to the various African nations in hopes that our specific ‘skill sets’ might find a new, less discerning, home. This of course made us uneasy.

For the past nine months or so I had been living with the prospect of spending the next few years doing agriculture and environmental outreach. In my mind I imagined coming home a green-thumbed environmentalist equipped with the legitimacy of foreign service. I had nine months to imagine the direction I would take as a RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer for all you unfamiliar with PC acronyms). These thoughts probably seem premature but to me they were unavoidable considering the long Northern Maine winter Kim and I have attempted to endure (pictures to come shortly, its ridiculous). Similarly, Kim had been preparing herself for work in the community health sector. Now, faced with the possibility of being placed in radically different programs, Kim and I wait. And wait.

Now that you’re up to speed on the emotional turmoil underlying our expectancy, I’ll tell you what you must have by now guessed. Kim and I will be…teachers…in Guinea.

Despite the initial shock at the drastic change in our assignment (and there was plenty), Kim and I have decided to accept our placement offer and, barring any unforeseen development, will be departing the 7th of July. Kim will be teaching Science and I’ll be teaching English. Kim obviously is more than qualified. As for me, those who know how awful I am at spelling recognize the tragic comedy of my assignment.

Now that that the waiting is over and the initial shock has passed, I expect the next few months will be spent practicing French, worrying about what to pack, and dreaming of Africa.

P.S. Will-to-Flower. I hope everyone appreciates the ‘Nietzschian’ word-play. Can you believe the concessions Kim makes.

Immersion

Immersion
-denise levertov

there is anger abroad in the world, a numb thunder,
because of god's silence. but how naive,
to keep wanting words we could speak ourselves,
english, urdu, tagalong, the french of tours, the french of haiti...
yes, that was one way omnipotence chose
to address us-hebrew, aramaic, or whatever the patriarchs
chose in their turn to call what they heard. moses
demanded the word, spoken and written. but perfect freedeom
assured other ways of speech. God is surely
patiently trying to immerse us in a different language,
events of grace, Horrifying scrolls of history,
and the unearned retrieval of blessings lost forever,
the poor grass returning after drought, timid, persistent.
God's abstention is only from human dialects.
The holy voice utters its woe and glory in myriad musics, in signs and portents.

Our own words are for us to speak, a way to ask and to answer.