"Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life" -Marcus Aurelius

This update will feature some brief vingnettes from the past few weeks.

Logos Hope is the "world's largest floating bookfair" and was docked in the southern part of the island for about two weeks in February. I got the chance to visit with the grade 5 students and I'm so glad for the chance to see it. The entire operation is run by volunteers from around the world. Our students were convinced that I was related to all of the white people that worked on the boat, LOL.

Galentine's Day Lunch with Alexis was a real treat. We traveled to the north of the island where all the posh things are, LOL. The photo is our view of the marina during lunch. As I was on the bus home, I was very thankful for the time with my friend, the conversation, the food. But in all honesty, I also started thinking about how nice it will be when I return home and meeting a friend for lunch won't involve a 6 hour round trip on the bus, LOL!

At the beginning of this week, I got to participate in the The Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens Celebration of Service at PLU. Thanks to Bridget for the photo--we were laughing because I am so HUGE and just hovering over all the other panelists! It was great to see folks from PLU and to share a bit of my Peace Corps experience.

And finally to a step forward at school! One of the things I'm working on is a resource collection for teachers--essentially a collection of literacy worksheet masters that they can easily pull and copy for classes. It's been hours and hours of printing, putting into sheet protectors, and getting in the binders. This is a little less than half of what I need to do, but it feels good to actually have something ready for use!

There's no picture for this--but I'm also over the moon that y'all in the US are springing ahead this weekend! It seems like a small thing, but cutting that time difference down from 4 hr to 3hr for my PNW folks. Staying up for the PLU event was well worth it, but boy was I feeling my age the next day! LOL.

Comments

"This wasn't a strange place; it was a new one" -Paulo Coehlo

Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions. A couple notes about this video: 1) my voice is a bit scratchy and crackly because there was burning happening when I recorded and the smoke messes with my voice 2) In some of the slides, it sounds like a teapot is whistling--my apologies that was the fan getting picked up by my headphones (its not too loud, I promise) 3) In the slide following my intro, I state that the "ministry of health" was involved when I meant to say "ministry of education" (the error is actually quite obvious, lol)

"like butter scraped over too much bread" -JRR Tolkien

Full quote: Why, I feel all thin , sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something. I can't believe its taken over a year for me to pull out a LOTR reference! 😉 But Bilbo's words ring so true for me these days. A few weeks ago I posted that I had reached the one year mark--and it has been a hell of a year! The highs were really high and the lows were low, low, low. As the school year finally came to a close on Friday, I am feeling like I can really step back and take a breath. A nice, deep, long breath. I have hope and excitement around the projects at school next year; but right now I need a break and some quiet, reflective space. As part of that break, I'm going to put a pause in the blog until school starts again at the beginning of September. So until then, I leave you with a pict...

"allow it to end with grace and an open mind for a new day" -Brendon Burchard

Full quote: It's official--my close of service (COS) date is July 5, 2025, which means I have less than 6 months left! I know that a lot of volunteers talk about how hard it is to think about leaving and returning home. I am definitely not one of these volunteers. Don't misunderstand me--I am deeply thankful for this experience and I remain glad that I did this. I have learned so much about so many things, including myself. But simultaneously, I am feeling very, very ready to be done. There are a multitude of reasons, most of which are best left unsaid in this forum. I remain deeply commited to being present and finishing my projects. There are still roadblocks beyond my control holding up a big part of the library project. While I really want to see these pieces come to fruition, I've also made peace with the fact that they might not get done before I leave. It's the reality of the situation and I've do...

One Wild and Precious Life

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