Dumela (we think that means "hello") Everyone,
We both hope this post finds you all well!
So, it has been a bit since our last update - Shane hasn't been letting me bore you all with the gorey details (I have not been letting Carol overwhelm you all with posts...). Anyways... we had a lovely rest of our time in the midwest (the flooding in ND was unbelievable!) and an incredibly long - delayed - Amtrak ride back to Shelby and have pretty much been laying low and enjoying our time with family. Playing pinnocle and banannagrams, going for walks - thinking about painting Shane's parents house while watching it rain a lot! We'll post a few more pictures of Shane and the first wild aspargus plant he found when we went out "hunting" with Auntie Kris, the apple tree that we planted in the McFarland backyard in honor of Carol's grandpa Stanley who passed away last summer and a pic of us at our favorite romantic getaway in Hot Springs, MT - where we took a little break for a couple of days.
Yes, despite being essentially homeless and unemployed - we decided we needed a little break... Unfotunately as I am always a fan of sharing the somewhat unglamorous side of things, the last couple of months have truly been a never-ending to do list with lots of packing and sorting!
We have to say how much we have really enjoyed the last almost two months that we have gotten to visit as many of our family and friends as we possibly could - we will miss everyone and have unmitigated gratitude for the time and hospitality everyone gave us. We hope that you found it as enjoyable as we did and it really was priceless!
Just to give you a quick update on what is coming up very soon - we fly to Philidelphia early Tuesday morning (so watch for pics of the Liberty Bell - hopefully!) for about a day, where they will collect us up with the 20 other volunteers, immunize us, introduce us to each other and ask us if we are sure - and if we are sure we are sure! We will then get on a very early bus to get on a very early, very long flight, to South Africa. So, we will get to meet our host families and the people who will train and supervise us, on June 3rd. It sounds like we will get to actually stay together with a host family for the 10 weeks of training, (after which we will know more about where and what we will be doing). As for the training itself it looks like we will definitly be having Sesotho lessons everyday! And more shots we think... it looks like they also cover a lot of safety information. Tomorrow is our last day in Montana, we are expecting a frenzy of trying to slim down our packs and cram everything in and organize things in case pieces get lost... if we get a chance to take a picture of everything that is going into the packs we'll try to post it. Otherwise, we will update as soon as we get a chance - because, theoretically the exciting part of the blog is about to start!
We have had some requests for an address - so here is the P.O. Box of the Peace Corps, it seems that padded envelopes rather than boxes are easier/cheaper to send.
Shane and Carol McFarland PCVs
U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 554
Maseru,100
LESOTHO
We would love, love, love to hear from you in the form of letters, comments on the blog and emails!
All our best to you!
Shane and Carol
