2004-10-06 - 11:21 a.m.

So here I am in Aleg, my regional capital, after three weeks spent in my site away from any type of contact with the rest of the world... except for with those people calling me on my phone.

Getting on email felt really good yesterday and being able to pick up and drop off my snail mail also gave me a rush of adrenaline... but the best thing was finding BANANAS and APPLES in the market!!!!! Just kidding... thank you so much to all of you who wrote me in the past month, I was really looking forward to hearing from you and was glad to "see" your familiar words, pictures, care packages, etc!

On my way here to Aleg I made a pit stop in Chogar to visit another fellow volunteer, Karin, and her host family... we spent the evening sipping hot herbal tea (from the US!!!!) under the dark sky dotted with billions of stars, talking, reading poetry, and feeling good... in peace!

In my town I have been spending most of my mornings and evenings walking along my town main street introducing myself to random people, explaining who I am, what I am doing, and for how long I will be there... I also explained that I really want to spend the first few months getting to know the community and their needs, before I can really start drafting and implementing a plan of action with the mayor and the community itself on how to achieve their development goals... it's been really interesting to talk to these women and men about their culture, community, business practices, education, health, gardening, past, present and future...I am really enjoying it!

I am also slowly building a community around me, which is helping me feel integrated and welcomed, making it a lot easier to be so far away from family and friends...

I must go now... I will be back in Aleg in a month or so.

Love,

Jordy

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