Monday, June 23, 2008

hitting the road

So Kim and I are getting down to the wire. She's already returned to Mass. and I'm getting ready to leave Ft Kent on Tuesday. I'll be stopping in Bangor and Portland to visit and say goodbye to friends as I travel down to stay with Kim's folks in Canton. Its sad to leave the North. Kim and I had a heck of a time this past year what with the snow and the floods. I bet she's happy to have it behind her. We've been waiting and anticipating for this next step so long that I think we grew accustomed to the wait. In a sense I think we're half surprised that our departure date is coming up so soon. With all the things left for us to prepare and pack it seems that we haven't been able to say goodbye to last year.
I'd like to take a second to thank all the faculty at the ft kent high school for the kind letter that they wrote Kim and I. I'd also like to that the members of the 'civil rights team' and the "warriors for change" for their kind gift and for making my year truly memorable. Particularly to the members from the "warriors for change", an incredibly rewarding group of students to work with. Together we managed to collect and send over one hundred and twenty-five pairs of shoes from ft kent to Kenya to provide protection against parasite contraction. Anyone interested in the program should check out Shoe4Africa.com.
I suppose Kim and I will post our pack lists in our next entry. Meanwhile, I've been spending the past couple days trolling librivox for audio books and organizing our ipod. Kim and I invested in a solar charger which we'll use to keep our ipod going since we expect to be with electricity when we arrive at site. We're hoping that between the solar charger and the ipod we'll avoid the depths of homesickness and anxiety that might otherwise come along with living without electricity or running water. It's impressive how much time I've sunk into this ipod. Hopefully serve us well. Maybe if we give it a good, sturdy name like Wilbur or Elinor we'll see positive results. Is that superstitious?
Well I guess that's all for now.

Be well,
Jonathan