Letters from Africa

Matt's brother Chris is leaving next week to go into the Peace Corps. He's going to Mali for two years. Makes me think back to when I left for the Peace Corps over 15 years ago now. Hard to believe. One of the best things I did was write home regularly, and thanks to my parents, I now have those letters again. So I'm going to relive some of my experiences by going through the letters. I left in June 1991 to go to the Central African Republic, much in the news these days along with Sudan, Chad, the Congo.

We stayed in Philadelphia for a few days (maybe even the same hotel that Chris will stay in) and then took a bus to JKF, where we climbed aboard a plane (not yet Air France I don't think), flew through Paris and onto Douala, Cameroun. We spent five weeks in a town called Batie for the first part of our training. From there, 20 of us left on another flight to Bangui, CAR.

Postcard from Batie, June 6th or June 13th:

"Mom and Dad,

It's Sunday about noon. Things are fine and we're getting going around here. I thought I would send you a short note w/ this postcard just to let you know we had a good time in Paris and got here to Batie safely. It reminds me so much of the mountains in Pakistan. We are in the mountains in Southwest Cameroun and it is so beautiful. Everything is fine and I love you. Tell everyone I say hello.

Love, Frank"