First and foremost, Happy New Year to everyone!! Sorry we’re a little-more-than belated on the New Year wishing, but we’ve been keeping very busy (and very entertained) on the road with fellow PCVs!! And have been knee-deep in beginning-of-the-year work upon our return to Thembalethu!!
But prior to the start of work, Adam and I arrived back to site from not only some incredible Holiday vacationing, but also from celebrating a relaxed New Years Eve in Graskop – including New Years Day pancakes and a great trip into Kruger – accompanied by some of our favorite fellow PCVs! And before I delve into a plethora (and I mean literally a myriad and massive number) of Travelogues, RWOs, and other ponderings covering the past month, I felt it necessary to put up this New Years post. Not only mark the new year itself, but more importantly, to commemorate the passing of a year that has been full of changes and the entering of a year that should bring about some pretty amazing changes as well! So where to begin…
2010 was certainly chalk-full of happenings – both wonderful and difficult. At the very start, Adam and I embarked on an adventure that can easily be described as our most momentous to date – a Peace Corps service invitation to Africa. And while it would be impossible to sum up a whole year’s worth of living and working here in words alone, I can definitely claim that it has been one of the most life-changing events that we have ever experienced. I would not try to fool ourselves or others by saying that it has been easy – not in the slightest. Training, placement, site change, adjustment… the past eleven months have actually been some of the most trying times of our marriage together. And we have often found ourselves in late-night conversations about our complete understanding of South Africa’s highest early volunteer termination rate in global Peace Corps – with its extreme first-world/third-world dichotomy and the very complex remnants of Apartheid and governmental evolutions. Nevertheless, even in the midst of our most difficult times, we often find ourselves appreciating, ever more gratefully, the many ways in which we have seen each other grow – our increased level of patience, our capacity to discuss and empathize, and our ability to smile at even the smallest joys in our day-to-day life. Furthermore, we’ve been introduced to an entirely new breadth of finding happiness in life and it has helped us to put into perspective the way in which we face our challenges and celebrate our successes.
Back home, as always does, life has continued on for our families. And we have both cried and smiled at the changes we hear about in phone calls, read about in emails, or see in photos…
Adam’s family has had some incredible successes in their newest professions – Nate found a great fit at a new position in Davenport, Don has been a force for impacting economic change in the city of LaSalle, and Donna has entered new waters as Fund Development Director at Adam and Gina-Marie’s alma-mater, St. Bede Academy. Following these transitions, Donna also returned to school to pursue a graduate degree in the development sector! Thus, I have been witness to several phonecalls and emails describing the many tribulations of masters work… and though I can sympathize fully (fully!!), I also know that she can and will make it through in time!
Speaking of achievements, Grandma Mary celebrated a healthy, happy and incredibly momentous birthday in November – the big 9-0!!!! A huge party was organized and she found herself surrounded by nearly one hundred friends and family from across the nation! And though Adam and I were heartbroken to miss the event, Adam’s parents set up a photo frame with our picture on one of the main tables so that our presence could be felt!
Added to all of these occasions and changes, we received the happiest Aleksy news of all in 2010 when Gina-Marie and Nate called to announce that they were expecting!! And while they are still holding off on finding out if we will be welcoming a niece or nephew in mid-February, we have been able to hear about the glorious progression of a baby bump (and even see its start when we visited in August!) and feel all the excitement in their voices as the final months of pregnancy approach! I can honestly say that Adam has been beside himself at the thought of being an Uncle, and while I am usually the one most apt to get excited about little socks and onesie outfits, I think he actually had even more fun at picking out the ‘African Babes’ clothes with lion ears on the front and poofy tails in the back – too cute!!
On my side of the family, we faced an extremely tough start to the year with a funeral service for my Papa Ben and the loss of my Granma shortly thereafter. And though the grieving process was necessarily difficult for us all, we were also relieved to know that after over 70 years of marriage, my mother’s parents were not separated from each other for very long. In fact, we smile at the thought of their reuniting – that my grandfather (who is mostly deaf) and my grandmother (who mostly ignores this fact) probably had the following conversation:
Granma: “Daddy, is that you?”
Papa: “What?”
Granma: “Oh yes, daddy, that is you.”
Papa: “What?”
Granma [a little closer/louder]: “It’s me daddy.”
Papa: “Oh, hello mama, what took you so long?”
It most certainly would have happened, perhaps even word for word, in that fashion. *Smile*
For my family, toughest of all in 2010, was the long wait for my mom to get her much-needed and much-delayed hip surgery. This finally took place in October, and although the procedure ended up with more complications than expected, I was able to hear my mom’s voice with almost no pain for the first time in over two year just before the holiday season (that was the greatest present I could have hoped for this year). Best of all, just before the end of 2010, my parents called to inform me that she had attended her third post-op doctor’s visit and taken her first steps entirely on her own!!!
I cannot neglect to include here that my dad, who willingly admits that mom is usually the glue that holds us all together through the toughest times, has been our family’s rock in 2010. And knowing that he has been able to somehow keep it all together for us is the only thing that has made me being so far away through it all possible. And hey, it’s good practice, I’m sure we’ll find more to throw at him over the coming years!
Finally, my sister had what I call the “long haul” year, as she transversed the continental United States (a couple of times, actually) and ended her travels with a new (well, kind of old…long story) love. I exchanged several emails and phone calls with her about this newest re-addition to our family, and the person I believe my sister was always meant to find again in her life – Devin. And another little tidbit… I have actually withheld this post for quite a while so as to finally have permission to announce…
My sister and Devin will be getting married on May 1, 2011!!! So while she has been focusing on the most pertinent of issues at this time – such as housing options and career paths via her new locale in Kentucky – I have been spewing Facebook messages about colors, flowers, and cake flavors – how very typical of each of us!! Anyways, while there are no official “Save the Dates” to be mailed out yet, I am already looking forward to the anything and everything that is a sister’s wedding – a bridal shower, dress shopping, cake tasting (ahh, cake tasting!), and so forth. Now I just need to figure out that whole I-live-in-Africa-and-she-lives-in-the-U.S. thing… hmmm... but, as always, we’ll work it out!!
And there you have it… what a year!! And with that, 2011 begins!!! Needless to say, ‘The Times They [certainly] Are A Changin’! And all I can really say at this point is that we’re looking forward to a great New Year!!
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