A Series of Tubes
Email is great and easy! I might only have sporadic internet connectivity, but I do have a brand spanking new laptop to access it when it's available. Try to keep the spam/cheesy jokes/cute kitty videos to a minimum, but don't hold back when it comes to updating me with your latest news and gossip. If I do have regular internet, I will try to pop onto Skype and gmail for video/voice chatting as often as I can. (My skype name is Tamar0702.) I may consider keeping a blog, if I can access the internet to do so consistently.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night
Letters are probably the greatest, most meaningful thing you can do for me while I'm gone. With or without internet, I am going to feel very disconnected from you - the ones I love,- and life in general. Write to me about your big news, your small news, your non-news. Send me your gossip, movie reviews, book suggestions, funny newspaper comics, crossword puzzles. I will find even mundane quotidian details interesting. Your mail will keep me going when I am lonely and homesick. If you feel like expressing your love and affection in a more expensive, extravagant way, packages will be greatly appreciated. Another volunteer wrote on her website that "care packages are the way Peace Corps Volunteers judge each others' popularity." So, it's on: make me look good.
My address until October will be:
PCT Tamar Rosenstein
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 299
Thiès, Senegal
West Africa
Some snail-mail guidelines
As proven by my mailing experiences in France, postal services around the world are rarely up to snuff vis-a-vis our cherished USPS. It might take two weeks for a letter to arrive in Senegal from the US; but it can take many more days to get out to distant towns and villages. It may not arrive at all.
- On any and all mail, please be sure to include SENEGAL - WEST AFRICA, AIRMAIL and PAR AVION somewhere the postal workers can see it plainly. You may also consider numbering your letters so that we can keep track of what arrives and what doesn't.
- In packages - seal everything in Ziplock bags. This will keep out the rodents (hopefully) and the rain. Plus, apparently Ziplock bags are as valuable as currency to Peace Corps volunteers; I can re-use any you send.
- As law-abiding as some of you might be, do NOT be honest on those customs forms. Everything you send should be recorded as "Used" and shouldn't have a total value of more than $10. This will work to ensure that your packages reach me, and not the family of a Senegalese postal worker.
- Wrap the box/envelope in a couple of layers of clear plastic packaging tape. Make it damn near impossible for someone to cut open a corner and peek inside. You may also consider adding a list of the items you're sending so I'll know if someone got to it before me. (Sad face.)
- I will have to pay a small fee to rescue packages from the post office, so please don't send two boxes where one will do. (Ok, might be getting ahead of myself by assuming there will be multiples of packages.)
Âllo, téléphone?
At some point during my training, I will be buying a cell phone to have during the next two years. I'll share that number as soon as I get it. We can rack up sms bills together!Visits
Want to visit? You'll have to wait at least six months, but my door (assuming I have a door) will be open. We can discuss when works.
Are we there, yet?
Officially, my Peace Corps Service starts on August 11th. However, I'll be leaving Denver on August 6th for my cousin's wedding in Tennessee and then heading straight to Washington, D.C. for 24 hours of safety training and immunizations. (Yay, for starting malaria pills!) I will have my cell phone [720-839-5901] until the 11th, so feel free to call me for last-minute love.
Love you all dearly and cannot wait to keep in touch with you,
Tamar
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