My (Material) Life for 27 Months

Bag #1 - 50 pounds... Bag #2 - 48.5 pounds... and a carry-on.  All of these items fit into three bags...

Here's a different angle...

These are all of the material things I'm bringing with me to South Africa.  The things that you can't see but I still carry with me are my family, friends, memories, lessons learned, excitement, nervousness, and curiosity.  These intangibles are more valuable to me than anything I can physically carry.  (I do have to say, though, that mountaineering has been great conditioning for these heavy bags - ha!)

While I'm in the Peace Corps, I'm hoping to feel a growing sense of detachment from material possessions.  Over the last few years, I've treasured experiences and memories more and more.  And now I imagine Peace Corps will elevate me to a new level.  I'm looking forward to a life that's simpler and away from forms of escape through things like Facebook; albeit, as I'm writing this post I recognize that by getting on the Internet to blog could be considered a distraction.  My hope is that blogging will do a couple of things.  One, it'll help me illustrate my experiences to anyone who is interested in reading about and seeing them.  Two, it'll help me write things down so I can look back on my experiences in the future and remember the finer details that tend to get lost in forgetfulness of time.  I hope you enjoy what I/we write and hopefully enjoy our posts to at least a minimal degree. ;)

"I'm in a glass case of emotion!"

Joe and I are sitting in the New Orleans Airport awaiting our flight to staging in Philadelphia. We will be there for about 16 hours before we start our journey to Johannesburg. These last few days have been an emotional roller coaster, which leads us to the theme for this post...

Emotions #1 & 2: Awe & Love
Our visit to Louisiana was beautiful. In our short visit here, we were blessed to see many of the family and friends that we hold dear. My parents and brother came in from Texas to spend some time together. This time, even just laughing and cutting up, is invaluable for me. My heart will miss them very much.
My Aunt Marie and Uncle Curtis graciously hosted our Louisiana going away party. I felt so spoiled to be able to visit with so many cousins, aunts, uncles, maw-maws (grandmothers), paw-paws (grandfathers) and friends (shout out to Spider, Tyler, Bubbles, Mikey, and cousin Michael for making the long drive in). We stayed up late playing cards and woke up to delicious breakfast prepared by my Aunt Gail, mom, and mawmaw.
I am in awe of the beauty of this state--the swamp, the oak trees... More powerfully, we are in awe of the many family and friends who have expressed their love and support for us along the way. Our hearts are full.

Emotion #2.5: STUFFED!
Man, these people know how to treat us right! We have eaten more delicious dishes and sinful treats in the last three weeks than we have in the last six months! One colleague asked how she can get that happy glow that she was seeing in our road trip photos. I told her (paraphrasing here), "Quit your job, visit amazing people, and eat everything you have ever wanted." We have gained a little weight, but have loved every bite!

Emotion #3: Sadness
With that love comes the realization that it will be some time before we see these beautiful people again. I told two of my students before I left, "With every choice comes a sense of loss." With every choice we make, we are inherently choosing not to do the alternative. We are choosing this adventure. With it, we are sacrificing the ability to easily visit (or Skype) with those we care about the most. We have great faith that our relationships are strong enough to weather this time apart, but it is still appropriate to feel sadness as we embark.

Emotion #4: Fear
I have felt many things during our preparation process for the Peace Corps. However, yesterday was the first time that the overwhelming emotion was straight-up, paralyzing fear. It was a fear of failure, of safety, of the unknown... I'm not sure what triggered it, but it was powerful and strange. Joe reminded me of our resilience and I began to feel better. :) We are pretty dang resilient...

Emotion #5: Excitement!
WE ARE MOVING TO SOUTH AFRICA!!!!! How stinkin' awesome is that?! I mean, seriously! Whose life is this?! This is the biggest adventure that either of us has ever taken and, MAN, it is going to be AWESOME! :-D Who are we going to meet? How are we going to change? What are we going to see? There are so many possibilities that we are squirming in anticipation. Look out, South Africa! (Ready or not!) Here we coooooooooome!!