Three days and counting!

Today is Sunday and my dear friend, Jill, is coming over this afternoon. She is bringing a book she has compiled with pages that she asked my friends to complete. People have been asking me how I liked their page and I've had to tell them that I haven't seen the book yet. So my anticipation has been building, and I think I will save it to read on the plane (partly so I can't chicken out and stay here!) It's been wonderful visiting with friends and sad to say good-bye, yet it brings cause to wonder why we don't make such efforts every day to stay more closely in touch with the people we love and who's company we enjoy.
I have been in contact through email with three volunteers who are currently in Belize. I've been drilling them on questions about what to bring and managed to fit in a question or two about what I could bring them. Anyone know how to get a hamburger in a suitcase?
The last and probably the most frequently asked question is:

4. What on Earth possessed you to join the Peace Corps? In my Christmas note, I explained how my family watched the evening news every night and I remember watching as President Kennedy signed the bill that created the Peace Corps in 1961. Honestly, I don’t think I had any idea what it really was, but I knew I wanted to join the Peace Corps. Life and almost 50 years got in the way until Christmas 2008, when my Dad asked me, “Have you thought about joining the Peace Corps?” To which I responded, “Well that’s a little drastic way to try to get rid of me, don’t you think?”After my initial laughter over the absurdity and telling him that I’m sure they don’t take people my age, he said, “Just check out the website. I’ve looked at it and I think you might find it interesting.” Before I knew it, I was filling out the application and the rest is history.
From the time I was six years old when my parents bought an unbuildable lot to build our dream home until last year when I returned to college for the first time in 35 years, I’ve always thrived on a challenge. When I was 8, my parents took us on our first camping adventure because my Mom said, "If they can build houses on the sides of mountains in California, we can build our dream house on a hill in Dayton Ohio." Fantastic camping trips evolved through every state in the continental US, except Florida; and each one was a wonderful adventure. So, I guess it was only natural that when I packed up my belongings in a U-Haul at age 27, I headed to Florida. And, as all of you know, I have had challenges and great adventures throughout the 31 years I’ve lived here. School was very challenging and I’m proud that I got A's in every class and passed the National Exam. But I think the most important thing I learned (besides the fact that I don’t want to work for an attorney), is that I can do almost anything if I work hard and put my mind to it. Sometimes you have to get lost to find yourself, and it’s time for new challenges, a new adventure and to begin a new phase in my life.
One of my "pen pals" in Belize told me a story about some vegetable seeds that her friends sent her from the U.S. She asked her host father if he wanted to plant a garden and as they began to dig up the plot several children, then their mothers came to help. When Tracy realized that she would have extra seeds, she offered them to one of the women. The woman began to cry and ran back to her hut. Tracy asked her daughter if she had offended her mother and the girl replied, "Oh no. My father was an alchoholic and drank anti-freeze on New Years Eve. He died and my mother has been very worried that she wouldn't have enough to feed all of us. The seeds you gave her bring her hope."
At the end of Schindler’s List, Oscar Schindler is given a ring with the inscription, “If you save one life, you save the world.” I’m not so idealistic anymore to think I can help save the world, but if I can help one person it would be a good thing; and that’s the main reason I want to join the Peace Corps.