I have a few friends abroad right now who are doing great things for this country, and probably the world.

First, Shan from My Own Story. Shan went straight rom USC into the Peace Corps. She’s now in Turkmanistan. I just wrote her a letter yesterday as she doesn’t have frequent contact with the email technology. At this point she’s still in training, but once she’s out in the field it would probably be a little bit more difficult.

And then there’s Amy, a friend from high school, who has just landed in Iraq. She’s an Air Force officer, but now in the army. She wants to be out there and does her part. Brandon and I are picking up some stuff from Costco this weekend to send her and her mates some items she has requested. We’re planning on sending all sorts of things plus other holiday stuff.

So, there you go with the 2 women who bravely go out into the world to REALLY make a difference. All I can do from this end is to send my support the Oakley way. After all, like my friend Erin called me, a personal cheerleader.

When I was here back in 1993, away from my friends and family, the only way to get in touch was through snail mail. No email back then. Joy was in a boarding school on the East Coast at the same time, so the two of us corresponded like crazy via mail. It was such a joy to come home to a letter with “VIA AIRMAIL” stamp on the envelope.

Being alone out there in on foreign soil makes you somewhate lonely, doesn’t matter if you have people surrounding you or not. And all the little things from home helps.

So I make a commitment to write a letter to Shan every few weeks, and continue to correspond with Amy via email since she can access it quite readily.

You too can help.

I’m sure fellow Peace Corps volunteers and military personnel wouldn’t mind getting the letters either. Write something up, and send it to lesserweevils [at] borenconsulting.com. I will print them out and send them along with the letter to Shan and the care package to Amy accordingly.