The other weekend, we had some fantastic visitors: Joan and Dean! These are some of my favorite people ever - Joan was one of Jeff and I's teammates from Peace Corps Mali days and she lived in a village just outside of Sikasso, where we lived, so we were very close. Dean and Joan met in Peace Corps but unfortunately, his village was really far north so we didn't get to see him that often due to travel time. Anyway - we had not seen these two since we had left Mali (hello?! That's been almost 6 years!) and they came into town due to another Peace Corps friend of ours, Brendan Beck, having died in the Hotel Montana collapse during the Haiti Earthquake, so we could all attend the memorial service. It was obviously horrible circumstances to see old friends, but regardless, it was so amazing to see old friends. I just love it when you have the kind of friends where you don't see each other in forever but when you do, it's like you didn't skip a beat, and you just picked right back up where you left off. That's Joan and Dean for sure. We had a great visit with them and got to remember our good times with Brendan, who was an amazing person and contributor to the community, and reconnect with some other Peace Corps friends while at the memorial service. The service was appropriately located on the beach (last picture posted) in Stuart, FL since Brendan loved the water, and ironically, the location just happened to be on our Obscure Tourist Attraction list (see link for info). It's funny....Brendan is one of the reasons why Jeff and I ended up in Florida. Since he was from here and an engineer, he always told us while we were in Mali and trying to figure out what to do with ourselves - how great the work in Florida was and that we should move there. So we did....so unfortunate to loose such a great person but I am so happy to observe and realize how much good he did in the world and it will always be a constant reminder how I can always do more and strive to help others, like Brendan did. He was actully in Haiti at the time to do some engineering work for USAID....so he never stopped doing what he did best. I remember Joan and I had a good hug and cry after the service and it was so healing and reflective (N be Mafine fe dat!). Sometimes I think that is why God chooses to take good people away from us too early - the type of person they were makes us re-evaluate ourselves so that, as a whole, more people are encouraged to be better people. Through the reflection of our past relationships, we can influence and improve the world. Isn't that the point? Sorry for the deep thoughts...it's very difficult NOT to think deep thoughts when I'm remembering Peace Corps days....we always knew Africa would scar us for life. Ala K'an Deme...
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