Mary, My Pi SupoSome choices are easy to make, but the consequences are harder by which to live. So it is with our decision that Mary should leave the Peace Corps and return home to Minneapolis this June 4th after a year in Samoa.
Mary has just spent six nights in the hospital with a serious staphylococcus infection, receiving intravenously massive doses of antibiotics. This follows an earlier staphylococcus infection of the blood and required a four-night hospital stay with similar treatments. The causes of these infections seem to be a simple cut or scratch where the ever-present microbe can enter the body. A staphylococcus infection is serious with possible arthritis, heart damage, or death. Two doctors advise her to leave and the Peace Corps staff is very sympathetic to the risks she faces if she continues to stay. Living with this constant fear of infection just doesn’t make sense to stay.
The tragedy is that we both seem to be hitting our stride with our Peace Corps projects. Mary especially is excited about the English reading program she just started at the primary school and the progress of sewing classes. We are both committed to the Peace Corps. We have agreed that I should try to complete what we have started and continue to pursue those projects we hope to get started.
After 30 years of being together, neither of us looks forward to being apart. Mary returns home to the familiarity and welcome of our children, her family, and friends. I seek not your sympathy for staying for I look forward to more meals of canned mackerel and the knowledge we are doing the right thing.
1 comment:
How unfotunate Mary Kay. It is wise for you to come back, nothing is worth risking your health in such a way.
The next time I see you I will try to remind you to stock the cubbords w/ canned mackeral so Nick can "ease into" the state side.
Benjamin Hansen
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