All Aboard!!

I leave tonight at 9:40 EST. I'll be in London at 10am London time on Saturday morning; which is somewhere around 4am my time. I hope to catch a nap then tour London for the rest of the day. After that, some sleep at night and then back on the plane to Sierra Leone at 1pm Sunday. I arrive in Freetown around 7pm Sunday night. A person "an Expeditor" is meeting me. When I asked how he will know who I am, I was told that he will be holding a sign with my name on it. Wow, I'm a movie star and a diplomat! Never thought I'd have a sign at the airport.

Today was spent on those last minute things that never seemed to get done earlier; like applying for Student Loan Repayment and signing my will. That was fun...thinking about dying. I think I scared my kids with the thought of my demise. Let's hope it does not happen for many, many years. I also got a safe deposit box at the State Department Credit Union. I KNEW there was a reason I opened that account! I got to go the "little room" in the back of the bank and use my key to "match" the key from the bank and put away my jewelery. A lot of "firsts" in this job. In so many ways, I feel like I'm doing all the things in life that an independent adult does. I guess I've arrived!

Here is my new address:

Becky Cheney
2160 Freetown Place
Dulles, VA 20189-2160

You can send things regular mail with US stamps. All mail goes through Washington DC for security purposes. Go figure. Speaking of security, everyone keeps telling me to be careful. I guess my trusting nature is worrying a lot of people. I promise to try and remember that I'll be living in a third world country and that I can't do things the same way I did them on Silver Creek. I promise NOT to run at night and I promise NOT to be friendly with strangers.

I have to get the laundry, pack, etc, etc. Somehow I ended up with TWO bottles of good champagne in the frig. Wish some of you were here to celebrate this momentous moving with me.

I love you all and promise to keep in touch. I don't know what my communication options will be in Freetown, but I'll notify you that I've arrived somehow.....look out for smoke signals!!

Becky