Trip Home

We have returned to Africa after an up and down few weeks in the States. The joy of seeing our families was tempered by the sadness of burying a father. While the graveside ceremony was something Frank would have bore begrudgingly, the Irish wake was an event in which he would have reveled. It seemed the entire town of Belfast, Maine came out to the pub for the memorial and a great time was had by all. While the memorial in Boston was much more subdued, it was no less of an honor to see all our friends come out to support us during difficult times and we thank them all from the bottom of our hearts.

Thanks to some fortuitous volcanic activity, the brothers Hannon were reunited for an extra week, which is the longest time that has happened in years.


There was a new Hannon to meet as well. Her name is Lila and she is wicked cute! There was a rumor that she was really fun to hold and play with but everybody had to be content just hearing the reports since Aunt Sam was a bit of a baby hog!!! We can’t wait to see her again when she will be starting to walk.



We also got to see Barb, who goes by Nana now, and John. We could go for walks in Acadia National Park from their front door, which was great and we will be doing quite a bit of that when we finally return.

We spent some time in Vermont and New Hampshire with Sam’s side of the family, too. The girls are growing like weeds. They are so big we can barely all fit on one couch anymore!

When we arrived in Vermont it was 80 degrees, freezing! It only got colder from then on out (later in the week we saw snow when we headed up to Killington) but the weather held long enough to play a family game of softball, Kids vs. Adults. The kids were named Creamers, but they really got creamed. Who knew old people could still hit, run and catch? It is funny how Mark and Sam are still on the kid’s team.

We saw some other old friends along the way. We look forward to seeing them all again and those that we missed next time around.

So, we are back in Mali for the home stretch. We are actually going on a vacation, which we had planned before all this, to Ghana next week. That will be a good bit of arduous overland travel. It should convince us to go get good jobs somewhere so we will have the money to fly from now on. After that it is our Close of Service (COS) conference and a few weeks to wrap up our work. Then we are finished with Peace Corps and whatever comes next, we shall see…