It is the last day of my first trip to
Phoenix, Arizona to visit Joe, Ashley and Mia Rose
Wollersheim. I
sit in the airport with a heavy, happy heart as I wait for my flight
to Seattle, Washington - to visit two other dear friends - to board. I
look around the waiting area of my gate and see occupied business
travelers with laptops and older couples with cowboy hats leaving and
going to see their own loved ones. Airports always make me
reminisce.
I remember meeting Joe and Ashley in
July, 2008 during our 2-day pre-service training with the Peace
Corps. We sat at large, cloth covered tables in a generic conference
room full of foldable wall dividers at a Holiday Inn in downtown
Philadelphia and were given 'getting to know you' worksheets as one
of our icebreakers. I knew after meeting the
Wollersheims that Joe was an excitable person with limited
reservations and I could also tell that Ashley was a little more
reserved than her gregarious husband and had a sweet look about her.
What I did not know from that first meeting and what I could not tell
from a getting-to-know-you worksheet was that this couple would
become two of my best friends in the Peace Corps and more than that,
simply two of my best-friends.
The villages where Ashley, Joe and I
spent our first two years in the Peace Corps were about 5 hours apart
on a good public transport day. Different in traditions but similar
in their unfamiliarity we, like all volunteers do, spent a lot of
time musing about our sites, Mali, West Africa, development work and
the Peace Corps – among other things, of course. We would see one
another every other month or so and in between those times we also
went on some pretty epic adventures throughout Mali and in some
neighboring countries. We climbed, along with our treasure of a
friend Cassie, the highest point in Mali –
Mount Hombori – and
traveled in a taxi throughout
Guinea, including hiking in the
Fouta Djallon, and down through Sierra Leone to Freetown where we lounged on
the beach and rubbed elbows with some dubious characters on the
remote
Banana Island.
When Joe and Ashley left Mali I knew we
would stay in touch but also wondered how our friendship would evolve
as they moved on with their lives in America and as I moved on with
my new life in Bamako. While I was transitioning to a volunteer
position with more responsibility in Mali's capital for my third-year
with the Peace Corps – Joe and Ashley were transitioning to even
larger life changes – a baby, buying a new home, new jobs. What
would it be like when we all hung out again? Would it be the same?
Would we still dream about traveling to different places together and
within the same breath make goofball jokes as Ashley made popcorn?
I got my first chance to see Joe and
Ashley only six months after they left Mali. In January 2011 I went
out to
Las Vegas with my family to celebrate my Dad's 60
th
birthday. Even though Joe and Ashley had just closed on a house in
Phoenix days before our trip and Ashley was about 7 months pregnant
and growing seemingly by the hour, they still drove the 6 hours to Las Vegas to see me and
my family (and hit the black jack tables and slots!). Like all my
adventures with the Wollersheims, this one was unforgettable, too.
 |
| I knew you 7 months in the belly and 7 months out! |
My second opportunity to see the
Wollersheims came just a week and a ½ ago. Home for four months
from Mali before I start
graduate school - you could say I have some
free time. I decided to come out to the West Coast – somewhere I
hadn't visited since I was 12 years old and traveled with my Dad and
family from Vancouver, Canada down to Tijuana, Mexico (in the days
before trading drugs and trafficking people became popular – we
spent most of our money in Tijuana on chicklets and trampoline
jumping).
 |
| A community Christmas party |
I flew out to Phoenix a few days after
Thanksgiving and spent ten days living the dream à la Wollersheim.
We dined at
Olive and Ivy's, wowed the club with our moves like
Jagger at the
W hotel, watched more bad romantic comedies than should
be allowed in one week, hiked
Squaw Peak, ate pizza, prayed
together, made Christmas cookies and homemade baby
food, drank coffee with hipsters and trolled the vintage shops
downtown. Family, friends, community – I could not feel more
thankful to have such generous friends.
After ten days with Joe, Ashley and
their baby girl Mia, I know I need not have worried about what it would
be like to pick up on the relationship that we built over the course
of two years in Mali. Because while I could not have known when I
met Joe and Ashley how much they would mean to me later - I know now
how much they do.
See more pictures from my trip
here!
Adam Shero (who performed at the W hotel) - Moves like Jagger
Jason Mraz on Sesame Street - I'd link to all the videos we watched with Mia but I'm sure there's a limit
