You've got mail!!

Shouts out to the 704, 803 and 919. . .and. . .well, 252, I guess.

What I mean to say is, Ebony Kennedy wins mad cool points.

Every once in awhile I buy some cheap international minutes to call my sister in North Carolina. As the holidays approached and I knew she would be seeing a lot of the fam, I told her to tell everyone to write me letters and to send pictures if she could. I also commented several times that I didn’t actually think anybody would do it.

Welp, Ebony took it upon herself to collect letters for me at Christmas and mail them all to me herself! It was a huge surprise. She didn’t tell me that she was mailing anything, just shot me a message 2 weeks after sending me the mail, letting me know that I should have mail arriving soon.

In the package, I found letters from a bunch of my family members. (I have a huge extended family.) There were even some scribbles from the babies. :) The package also included pictures of the family from Christmas dinner, and a picture of the ‘WRITE TO AJA’ box that was evidently circulated by my sister. . .which was wrapped in shiny, glittery, green paper and decorated with a red bow.

It was SO AWESOME to hear from everybody. A couple of my Peace Corps friends that were present when I received the package laughed at my immediate reaction upon opening the package which was displaying the letters and exclaiming ‘LOOK! PEOPLE LOVE ME!’

Thanks so much to everybody at home in the Carolinas who didn’t forget about me on Christmas. :) I love you all and can’t wait to see you whenever I get back to the States!

I ALSO have to, of course, give a shout out to my co-dictator of the free world and  fellow globetrotter Shelby Lake! I received a letter from him at the post office the same day I got letters from my family. As a fellow globetrotter, he understands how special it is to get a letter in the mail when you’re overseas. AND it was written on bright, ridiculous Japanese stationary. . .what more could you want? Shelby, hurry up and figure out where in Asia you’re gonna be next year so I can look at plane tickets!

The letters are the most exciting thing to happen to me, recently. Other than that, I’ve just been enjoying the summer (read: dry season) weather.  It’s the same temperature, but without the rain, and it actually gets chilly at night so you don’t wake up sweaty. :) I’m spending my time reading, hanging out around my community and with other volunteers who pass through and trying to get prepared the best I can for the end part of my summer, which promises to be super busy. . .I’ll keep you all updated!

Much love to you all at home!