During my time in Senegal, I did not end up having too many friends come and visit... actually, correction, I did not have ANY friends come visit me during those two years. Not to give my friends a hard time, its hard this day in age to take time off work and shell out close to $2,000 to come to West Africa. But I did have my parents and my sister come out which was incredible! I was so happy to host them and have them experience some of my day-to-day events.
Now that I am living in the States again, I am much more reachable to many of my friends. I have only been here for a little over 2 months, yet I have had a plethora of friends come out to experience my day-to-day here with Heifer International at Overlook Farm. It has been great to host them and show them around the farm. They also have listened to me rattle my face off with facts and figures that I have been diligently memorizing about various countries and various Heifer International projects. I thank them for that. Many of them have also dealt with less-than good weather, but kept a smile on their faces the entire time. I truly appreciate each of them for that!
First I had a good friend, JJ, come out to Overlook Farm. I have not seen JJ in about a year. We met while on a cruise ship sailing around the Mediterranean sea. This was a one-year gift my Peace Corps friends and I had bought ourselves to commemorate the first year of our Peace Corps experience. This was a wonderful time in my life, getting to run around 6 countries in a week and see some of the most wonderful ruins. Seeing JJ again was wonderful. We reminisced on some great memories from that trip and realized that in the year of our friendship, we have only really spoken for maybe 10 days... I guess some friendships are just that way. He joined me and some of the other volunteers on the farm to our weekly Trivia Night, held at the Tavern. We won first place!
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| Classic JJ and I |
The following weekend, I decided to get off the farm and head into Boston. There I was able to meet up with a fellow Returned Peace Corps volunteer, Phil, whom I served with in Senegal. We actually lived very close to each other during my two-years of service and worked closely as well. He is currently going to Harvard Business School, and thought he could work on some of his sailing skills (which will be used with future clients) on me. I was easy to impress since I've never been sailing and had a smashing time. I also picked up some lingo, like "jib" and "tack"... I'm trying to work this into my daily conversation. He is so "jib"... "Tack" it!
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| Phil and I |
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| Just a beautiful afternoon for some sailing |
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| The Boston skyline |
A couple of weeks later, I was pleasantly visited by another old friend, Rob. Rob was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cape Verde (an island nation off the coast of Senegal). We met during the West African Softball Tournament in 2012 where he came to represent Cape Verde in this very competitive sporting event. We kept in touch during the following months leading up to May 2012 when I went to go visit Cape Verde and he so graciously hosted another friend (Cady) and myself. We had an incredible time during that trip, and it was the least I could do to host him, here in Rutland, especially since he is just graduating from Brown University (about an hour away). Rob came up and we decided to go hiking on Mount Wachusett. Besides the sketchy weather, we had an incredible time! The hike was just enough to get us a little winded, but did not stop us from catching up and getting to see some beautiful views.
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| Rob and I |
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| The view from the top... or almost the top :-) |
Finally, this last weekend, I got a very near and dear friend come to visit. Cady and I met in Peace Corps and went through the ups and downs together during those two years. She also worked close with Phil in that area of Senegal, and actually came with me to Cape Verde to visit Rob. She has always been close to me and it makes sense that after leaving Peace Corps and relocating to Washington DC, she would be one of the first friends to come see me in Rutland. She spent a couple of nights with me and my roommates while getting to see how the farm really works. Sadly the weather was especially bad during her stay here (in the 40s), but she got to see a lot of the surrounding area. We feasted on various vegan treats and pet lots of baby goats. We also got to go to the Worcester Art Museum to see an exhibit called From Kennedy to Kent State, which included some of the mot iconic photos in American history. I am so happy we were able to spend some quality time together and I look forward to going to DC to see some of her life in action.
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| Cady was a natural with the goats |
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| I love museums |
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| Dali and a rino |
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| Picasso |
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| My favorite exhibit, Flower Power |
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| Cady and I |
Its always so fun to have friends come and visit. Especially now as I continue to move around the globe, all my friends continue to get farther and farther away. Plus, life changes so drastically from one step to the next, its really fun to bring in those you love to experience what you do as a daily task. I really appreciate those who have come to see me already and in the reverse, have extended the invitation to me to see them. I plan on taking each and every one of you up on that invitation. To all those who are considering coming to the East Coast and can/will be in the Boston area, I would love to see you!
