Thursday, July 7, 2011

A Word To My Sponors

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Before time really starts to slip away I want to thank everyone who has helped me, encouraged me, and kept up with my story for the past two years. Here is a non-exhaustive list in no particular order...

The United States of America
Thank you for the chance to serve in the Peace Corps. I hope I did you proud.

The United States Postal Service
Thank you for creating flat rate boxes. Without flat rate boxes my mother may or may not have gone insane and me and my friends would have had to suffer through holidays that did not feature boxed wine, sausage, nacho cheese and the myriad of other delicacies that have been shipped across the Atlantic.

Skype
Thank you Skype for allowing me to have panic attacks and fits of joy communicating with my loved ones at home while not paying exorbitant fees. Your amazing unlimited call plan is just fantastic. I will miss the sound of the program starting up at 5:55 in the morning.

Gmail
Thank you Gmail for offering HTML for slow connections as well as google chat without you Google, I would not have been able to communicate with my friends and family nearly as much!

McKeown Family New Yorker Subscription
Thank you for the years of New Yorker magazines accompanied with bags of pistachios! Without the McKeown family subscription I would have been much more bored at meetings and PCVs throughout the country wouldn't have had nearly as many magazines nor nearly as an enjoyable of a time traveling through the country. I am sure that years down the road PCVs will be reading your New Yorkers and be very happy that they traveled all the way to Africa for their reading pleasure.

Shirley
Thank you Shirley for all of the cards. I need to count just how many cards there are because it's a truly impressive number. Your cards always put a smile on my face. Thank you so much.

CJ
Thank you CJ for coming all the way to Senegal and having enough sibling love not to pretend that Senegal isn't exactly the nicest place in the world. Your disbelief more at me for staying here than in my living conditions was very refreshing! I will always have great memories of our trip to the waterfall in Kedougou even if you were a little bitch pretending you were sick while we were in Thies.

The Pirate Bay
Thank you The Pirate Bay for providing me with limitless torrents to make time move just a little bit faster. My completely worthless and trivial knowledge of Top Chef, Grey's Anatomy, 16 & Pregnant, The Amazing Race, and other terrible shows would not be the same without you. Hopefully I will be less socially awkward and be less unaware of American pop culture when I return to the motherland because of you.

Matt
Thank you for listening to my insanity at all hours of the day, coming to visit, and showing your infinite patience and levelheadedness. Ready or not here I come!

Peace Corps Senegal
Thank you Peace Corps Senegal for allowing me to serve even though it was hard for myriad reasons at different times. Thank you most of all for the free calling plan among PCVs. Without free calling I would have had to spend even more money on credit and much less time scheming with Katherine, talking about food with Tamar, and gossiping with Jackie.

Clif Family Products
Thank you Clif Bars for creating the life sustaining product that is Crunchy Peanut Butter. I seriously think Clif should have some sort of partnership with Peace Corps because we love your products.

My Family
Thank you to my entire family for all of your support, emails, Skype calls, and packages. Can't wait to see everyone when I get home!

SpaceX
Thank you SpaceX for allowing me to send my online shopping purchases to you. Very discrete.

My Friends
Thank you to all of my wonderful friends who sent me email updates, spent countless hours on gchat with me, sent me letters and packages, and made the time to hang out while I was at home over Christmas. You are the best and I can't wait to see all you!

JCrew
Thank you JCrew for allowing me unlimited window browsing and many, many pairs of sale cargo pants.

Mom and Dad
Thank you for everything.

Pamanda's Hummus Plate
Thank you Pamanda's hummus plate for being you.

Senegal
Thank you for hosting me.

My Peace Corps Friends
Thank you to all of the PCVs who served with me in Senegal. You are all amazing. Without you I would have ET'ed without a doubt. I'm sure we'll be lifelong friends and will annoy our significant others and friends for years to come as we wax nostalgic about Peace Corps. See you all at unofficial WAIST!

Blog Readers
Thank you to all of my blog readers. I stalked you through Google Analytics and I appreciate your time and all of your comments. Thank you for all of your support. The support has been overwhelming.

This list of thank yous is by no means exhaustive and is only supposed to thank all of you for everything you've done for me. Every email, post on my blog, letter, package, phone call and text were incredibly special to me. You've kept me going and knowing that people at home are thinking about me and interested in my life here in Senegal makes a world of difference.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

2 comments:

  1. Alyssa,

    You did the hard work, thank you.

    Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. You got packages and I got a very extraordinary daughter who was generous enough to share this experience with us in a very honest and forthright manner. I will miss the posts but I am sooooooo happy that you will be home.

    ReplyDelete