Because Snail Mail is Awesome

19. A picture and a letter.

 

How about a picture, a picture of a letter, and then a letter?

My amazing cousin-by-marriage Travis, who is in Cambodia with the Peace Corps and blogs about it at travisjthompson.wordpress.com, recently sent Bird and I letters in response to some goodies we sent him. So, the photos are us with the Travis on a stick we had at our wedding and the letter he just sent me with awesome Cambodian stamps.

 

Dear Travis,

 

Can I just tell you how shocked and excited Bird and I were to get your letters and postcard in the mail? Considering how long it took for our package to get to you, we figured that anything you might send would take at least as long to get to us. But, lo and behold, our letters dated June 4 came last Friday. Such a great end-of-the-week surprise!

 

I loved the paper, by the way. The letters or words on the top were so intricate, and even the border on the left side was decorative. I know that it was just a planning book, but it's amazing how another language can make simple things look so much more beautiful. I mean, it could have been telling me to go to Hades and I would have thought, "Aw, pretty!" It's like the necklace I have that my Dad brought back for me from Saudi Arabia that has my name in Arabic on it. At one point, I wondered if it actually said my name, but then one of my sorority sisters who read Arabic looked at me while I was wearing it and said, "Hey, it says Elizabeth!" Made me feel a lot better about wearing it :-)

 

I'm so glad that you've been able to use the things we sent you with your students! Where the Sidewalk Ends was one of my favorites, and when we saw it in the store we decided that you had to have it for them. Shel Silverstein was an interesting man--he wrote "A Boy Named Sue" and I'm pretty sure he was a cartoonist for Playboy!

 

We can't wait to see you in August! Stay safe and well until then. Good luck with your GirlTalk project--it sounds like an incredibly rewarding undertaking with a group that really needs the time and attention. I know you'll make a difference.

 

You'll hear more from us soon, but I'll stop the public letter now :-)

 

Big hugs!!

Elizabass Jeopardy