Heather's Adventures in Lesotho

Monday’s tend to be a high-volume day for signing documents for me. Most of my team starts the week in the office and there are always several requests for me to review and approve before they head to the field. Last week I commented on Facebook that I have to look at my watch for the date every.single.time I sign a document. I just can’t keep the date in my head. Today I haven’t had any problems remembering the date because it’s 8.8.11. Easy to remember. I was thinking about this and it reminded me that the summer Olympics in Beijing started 3 years ago today – on 8.8.08 because 8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture. My life today is totally different than it was 3 years ago. It’s hard to believe. In 2008 I was:

• Living with a roommate in Baltimore
• Studying public health at Johns Hopkins
• Just finished with mid-term exams from my first term
• A recently returned RPCV
• Married
• Making new friends in my new city

I went to my pictures to look for something from August 2008 and found the gem at the top of the post. Not only is it from August 2008, it’s actually dated 8.8.08! It’s from Joanna’s birthday dinner at The Bicycle. When the picture was taken we were all just forming our friendship as we had only known each other for about a month. Now the ladies here are amongst my closest friends. We’ve been through a lot in the last 3 years including: 2 marriages, 1 pregnancy, 1 engagement, 1 divorce, 4 moves away from Baltimore including 2 moves to Africa, 1 extended unemployment plus new jobs for all of us at one point or another. Three years doesn’t seem like enough time for all of those changes.

Looking forward I have no idea what the next 3 years will bring. The funding for my program ends in the middle of 2012, so I am facing lots of changes. It’s exciting and terrifying to think about. I will be lucky if the changes work out for me the way the previous 3 years of changes have.