Everyone,
I’m happy to be able to access the internet and share some news for the first time since I arrived in Sierra Leone. All is well–with me, with training, with my host family, and mostly for the other Volunteers. We stayed six days in Freetown for necessary vaccinations, language introduction, and protocol visits before moving to Bo, where we are each staying with a host family for the duration of training. I couldn’t have asked for better people to live with. My host mother, Mari, tells me she’s around 65 but doesn’t know exactly when she was born. She has a 40-year-old daughter and three grandchildren, all teenaged except for one who is twenty-two, who all live together. The way that they welcomed me and have been teaching me what I need to know to live here effectively would have to be experienced to be believed. Worry no more if you’ve been doing so. In three weeks I will visit the site where I’ll be living by myself and teaching for the remainder of my service. I’ll keep you posted on my whereabouts and the state of training as I go along.
The internet cafe is about an hour and a half walk from my host family’s home. It’s near a market and other amenities that I hope to visit most weekends. I’m sorry for not being able to show photos, but there isn’t an SD card reader on any of the computers here. I will post photos the next time I’m in Freetown and have access to the Peace Corps office computers.
Thank you so much for the kind messages and well-wishing. Despite recent major changes, I feel very much the same as I did before leaving. The people and things I thought about often in the US are still on my mind throughout the day. Take care of yourselves and know I’m thinking about you.
Much love,
Meredith
Meredith Meadows 