Return to Sender? Hell NO!

Can you remember your best Christmas? Okay, how about your best birthday? Now, let’s combine those two days with an imaginary Valentine’s Day where you are given the most beautifully written Petrarchan sonnet wrapped around the Hope Diamond by the newest Calvin Klein underwear model who is, coincidentally, not a tool. And it is also the day you discover the world’s best sandwich and a calorie-free Piña Colada.
Not too shabby a hypothetical day, right?

Yet, all that awesomeness and excitement of the combination of Christmas, birthdays, delicious sandwiches, and fantasy Valentine’s Days are nothing…NOTHING…compared to the awesomeness and excitement of getting a letter, book, or care package in Mozambique.

You may think I’m exaggerating (or fishing), but cross my heart I’m not. I wish I could accurately describe the feeling you get when you realize that someone…some kind, beautiful person from home took the time and effort and money to send you something all the way to Africa. It never even matters what it is—I love it because it is a reminder of home and a welcome distraction from some of the harder aspects of being a volunteer in southern Africa.

Maybe I sound crazy…a grown 25-year old woman who gets all worked up about Crystal Light or a bar of chocolate or a People Magazine or a letter from home, but let me tell you, your standards here just change. What was once mundane or ordinary to me in the states is worth more than all the gold to ransom Atahualpa here in Mozambique. Rumpelstiltskin be damned. He could show up in Mozambique and there are some days I swear I would offer up my first born for a box of Cheese-Its.
Basically, I am not remotely picky and even things I wasn’t necessarily fond of in America, I love here because it means someone thought I would like it and took the time to send it. And I love that.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I would like this blog to serve no other purpose than to thank those dear folks back home who have been so kind to me. And maybe it’ll also be of some guidance to anyone (assuming there are others besides my Dad who read this) looking for advice on what to send someone serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer around the world.

So, let me just reiterate again that anything sent…and I mean anything!...will be used, it will be appreciated, and it will be loved. Even the astronomically large granny panties my mom sent me were amazing. Heck, I’ve got those puppies on now.

With the exception of the underwear and the Cheese-Its, which I hoard, most everything else that is sent to me gets shared. It’s fun to use things sent as birthday presents, awards at the Youth Center, prizes for student contests, or gifts for beloved friends.
I have been so blessed. Dear folks have sent homemade cookies, kids’ toys, nice smelling girly products, cake mix, books, children’s books for the Center, wedding invitations, anti-chafing gel, Connect Four, mixed CDs, stuff for our girls’ group, Nebraska paraphernalia, newspaper clippings, and scarves that remind them of me. I had a friend send me a package of everything Google recommended to her to send to Peace Corps Volunteers. I have received letters of encouragement from strangers and a book from someone who thought my writing style reminded him of the author. And I have an old professor who writes me a letter every week without fail, despite the slow return rate.

Sometimes it’s easy to slip into the egocentric frame of mind that everyone back home is doing so many fabulous things and has forgotten about you so far away being tormented by mosquitoes and BIC pens. So anytime something arrives, it is like Christmas and a welcome reminder that while yes, your friends and family are off doing fabulous things, no, they have not forgotten about you.

I was actually discussing the topic of packages a while back with a friend of mine, a high school and college classmate who is serving abroad with the Air Force. We talked about missing holidays, missing friends and family, being the only ones from home in the same hemisphere, and what were the best things we ever had sent to us. I was reminded that while our American agencies are very different philosophically, we are both serving our country, we are both far away from home, and we are both missing the same comforts of America. I felt bad thinking about one of my cousins who has been abroad in the armed forces off and on since I was little.

The realization that in the event of a severe Lime Flavored Tostitos craving, he couldn’t just pop on over to the grocery store never even crossed my mind until I came to Mozambique.

Discussing with my friend just what he and his colleagues in the military enjoyed receiving was really interesting compared to what my colleagues in the Peace Corps and I love getting. I can’t speak for him, but based on a small inventory I have collected amongst volunteers, what seem to be the hot ticket items are spices, any food packets that just require water, juice mixes, reading material, snack food, teaching materials, quite often vanity items like hair gel or deodorant, and letters.

While I have loved everything ever sent, some of the most amusing things I have received are letters from elementary classes in the states. I have included some of their very astute questions and concerns.

In Mozambique did you seen any loins thair?

Funday is tomorrow. It will be fun.

Have you maked any more frends? I mabie wood be your frend.

Do the people in Mozambique no the Pledge of the Allegiance? Is it worm there?

Can you have resese there? Can you come visit on Monday!!?

Do you have to read to the kids every day or do you stay asleep sometimes?

I am very luckiest because I have the best teacher.

I bet you’re the best Margaret that I ever knowed I hope you have a great day.

I bet you miss your family. I did when I hade to go on a trip with my mom. My dad and sister couldn’t go.

I wish I cud be with you.

Do you like to write storys? I like to write storys. One time I rote a story about a kitty who tured into a gohst.

Is it funner in Aferica than Arizona? Is it desert in Aferica like Califonia?

My favorite color is red, purple, and greyish-blackish.

Do you grow lemon trees if you do make lemonade. It’s good on a hot summer day.

Hi Mrs. Margret. I saw the Justen Bieber movie it is asome!!!!!!!!!!

Life in America is grate! I have roller skates but I’m still learning.

Upcoming is Father’s Day. It’s like Mother’s Day.

Hi. I am 8 years old. I’m sending you happyiness.


So, thank you to everyone, 8-years and older for thinking of me and sending me happiness (not just letters, books, or Cheese-Its) but newsy Facebook messages, regards sent via my mom, or just a nice thought. Those are the really good, better-than-birthday-and-Christmas-combined days.