Welcome to my ulendo!

April 1, 2025

I am filled with excitement and curiosity as I contemplate the next 6 months. On April 6, I leave for Lilongwe, Malawi, and a new adventure as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer. Patrick and I had been talking for years about joining the Peace Corps response when we retire. As you know, I have struggled to find work since moving to England at the end of 2023, so I revisited the Response plan and starting looking for suitable roles for me. There were plenty, and I was fortunate to find the role that sends me on this path. More about that later. I am thrilled to be assuming a role that will allow me to be of service and provide me with a sense of meaning and purpose.

The hardest part will of course be the separation from Patrick. But we endured a much longer separation early in our relationship, and we shall endure this one. I'm pretty sure you all know this, but Patrick and I met in Swaziland (now Eswatini) in 1990. I had just joined a WUSC summer program, volunteering at a Mozambican refugee camp, and Patrick had just begin his 27 month Peace Corps service. We fell in love almost immediately, and for the two years we were apart, we wrote letters, made cassette tapes, and had monthly phone calls. This time around, we will be able to manage the separation with two visits within the 6 months.

It's really, really important to me to have a grammatically correct blog, so if you see any errors, please point them out so that I can fix them and mitigate any damage to my hard-earned reputation as the co-constable of the grammar police (You know who you are).

I am new to blogging; please understand that I do not aim to monetize this blog, become an influencer in any way, or otherwise capitalize on this endeavour. I simply aim to share my ulendo, and make it simple for people to follow. So no fancy buttons, flashing images, or jazzy pictures. Just boring reading accompanied by photos and the odd video. Sorry not sorry.