As You Wish

After my last post on Sunday evening, I fell asleep with two wishes in mind. Here I am two days later, and both wishes have come true. I made my first wish public when I wrote, “I would give almost anything to know where I will be in two months, and what I will be doing." Well, las night I got the call from Peace Corps, so now it is official. I am not going to Mali.* Believe it or not, I have more than one psychic godmother, and here is a haiku message that I received from one of them, just a few hours before I found out.

spirit says not now

other doors will open soon

this is not your fight

- diane

 Currently, the powers that be in Washington, DC are working to arrange my transfer to a different country, but it is safe to say that two months from today, I will still be here at home in Cape Verde, teaching classes at the Centro da Juventude, coaching soccer with GD Amarante, and studying at the Escola Municipal de Musica. It’s not that I didn’t want to go to Mali—although I have dozens of aunties scattered around the world who will breathe a collective sigh of relief, knowing that I am not being sent into a battle zone. I just needed to know one way or the either, and now I do.

As for where they will try to send me next, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Honestly, I’m game for almost anything, but apparently at least one of my friends has a strong preference concerning where I might get reassigned.

Got my fingers crossed

That somewhere in our islands

Peace Corps will bring you

- vicky

How can you resist

The beauty of the warm sea

Peace Corps bring Drew here

- vicky

My second wish was exponentially more important. On Monday my dad underwent hip replacement surgery, so I am one of many who have had him in mind. Apparently all of our psychic love transmissions are working because he came through strong, and is now recuperating and experimenting with drugs for the first time in his life.**

Pura Vida,

Drew

* The 165 Volunteers that are currently serving in Mali are being evacuated. The Peace Corps program in Mali has not been officially closed, but they are not sending in a new training class this year.

**When the sixties happened, I’m pretty sure that my dad was studying and playing basketball. Enjoy the painkillers Pai, just not too much.