Friday, October 05, 2007

If it's Friday we must be in Sarajevo. In an hour we go to meet the new US Ambassador, Chuck English. He presented his credentials yesterday, so we are among the first people he has met. The hotel we are in, Hotel Saraj has wireless internet. That's why all the blogs got caught up. We arrived here yesterday and Margot could not find her passport. BIG PANIC. She was convinced she left it in Livno, 4 hours away. While scouring the van, I found her plane ticket under the back seat. Her passport turned up in her luggage though, so all is well. The kids all say they aren't ready to come home but I think they are. They are whipped. The schedule has been frenetic and we never know what the schedule will be until we actually show up somewhere. That's OK. The group has learned to be ready for anything. All the parents should be really proud of their kids. They have been great ambassadors for our country. As promised, I think you will find them changed. If nothing else, they all are talking about what they want to do with their futures. This trip has opened up so many possibilities for them that they never thought about before.Greg Wiitala, the USAID officer we met with yesterday is a former South Dakota 4-H,er. He really stressed that joining the Peace Corps is a superb experience for career development. After our meeting it's on to Banja Luka (again). It takes 4 hours. After overnighting there it,s back to Belgrade. Our plane leaves at 7 a.m. on Sunday so we'll be at the airport at 5 a.m, which means we leave for the airport at 4:30. When we get home we will be beat.