“There is no posterity in eternity” (Steppenwolf, Hesse)

Dear Friends:

For those of you with facebook accounts, I strongly encourage you to disregard this email and simply peruse my recent album, “library club.” It gives a much better idea of my life than this email will be, but I do want to send out something wordy as well. My computer is broken (again), otherwise I would have continued my policy of typing up individual emails and sending those out instead of a massive update, since I find myself very much missing individuals rather than masses. However, for the present time this will have to do.

So, news. Just a warning before the email proper: I’ve been pretty sick all day—not sure what I’m dealing with, but it involves throwing up and a very infected ankle. Thus, I feel like my typing sounds tired. Please don’t be mislead—I’ve never been happier, I just don’t have the desire to enthuse at the moment.

The most exciting part of my life is Library Club, which is officially Wednesday afternoons from 2-4 pm. But not a day goes by without someone stopping by to read. Library Club, as an official event, only came about because I wanted a way to feed my kids snacks without them expecting peanuts and bananas every day. So, every Wednesday there are snacks. . but every day, there are books and magazines, pencils and paper and dictionaries, silly pictures of life in America and chalk-drawing marathons at Miss Rebekah’s house.

Having grown up surrounded by books, swum through libraries, majored in English Literature, etc, it was quite the culture shock to realize the written word as luxury. I am so lucky to be able to provide access to books. . . ack. This is why you should just look at the pictures, yall. Anyway, there is an NGO near me that had these kid’s books in boxes. And I took them—I even have books in Malagasy, which is great. I have to give them back eventually, but since Betsy, Eva, and David are visiting me in July. . I’m hoping for replacements. (hey, Betsy, Eva, David—want to bring some kids books?). So. . Library Club isn’t turning into very interesting writing. I mean, we sit around and read books together. I try to translate “Going on a Bear Hunt” into Malagasy, but there are no bears here. We tell each other stories using the pictures of the books I can’t translate. They write lists and lists of vocabulary words and show up in class with examples I didn’t teach them.

Because of the pace of the days / lack of computer / social interaction, I also have turned my head into a private library and I just wish I had left life and read for 7 months straight a long time ago. I thought that perhaps I’d send out my list of books I’ve read since being here instead of an update, because it’s interesting to see what English books end up in the Peace Corps circuit, but that’s on my computer, too.

I’m liking teaching more and more—I don’t want my kids to pass into the next level come July. Although I do, of course, want them to pass. . I don’t! I still don’t have any adult friends but that’s partly because I don’t have any babies. In Madagascar (at least in my village) you’re very much a kid until you have kids. So the other teachers / “grown-ups” don’t really know what to do with me, because I don’t have any babies, and answer “never” to “oh but when will you have babies?”

Which is fine by me, adults are kind of creepy.

So this is all for now, folks. My Amazing Dad sent me a new battery / power cord for my computer, so you may hear from me again quite soon. And I do hope to hear from you! Although, I must admit that I am overwhelmed by how many of you have not forgotten me. It gets pretty lonely, at times, but even after seven months I can log onto the internets and you still want to know how I am, I have emails and letters and chats and encouragements. I miss you so much—the most difficult thing is knowing that what I miss, my life in Philly, won’t ever exist again and so my homesick becomes directionless and it all gets very sad—but there has been always someone there to remind me that I’m loved by people with whom I can converse fluently, and that I do have the ability to converse fluently and retain friendships. . . sense. This email makes none. Better luck next time!

Sambatra be i aho.

all my love,
Rebekah Rose