9.9.2007 A sweet promise - from the other side

When we get involved in facilitating exchanges of people there are many "official" functions and roles awaiting us: Our Deutsch-Amerikanischer Freundeskreis ( DAFK ) for instance has a President,a secretary,a projectmanager, a treasurer,a webmaster etc. and our sister - city counter part in Illinois the Belleville Sister City organization ( BSC ) offers similar positions to its members as well.

Recently two other ones were added or reactivated: the matchmaker and the mailman.Let me explain:A delegation from Paderborn will soon travel to Belleville in mid-october and folks there agreed to act as hosts for our delegates. Making these matches here, our secretary Dr. A. matched up our delegate Giesela Sch. of Paderborn with her Belleville host Nancy M. and since Giesela Sch. doesn't have email access as of yet Nancy M. sends her emails addressed to Giesela to my computer and I then act as the mailman and deliver the print-outs to Giesela Sch.'s mailbox via the old fashioned " sneaker net" - that is I walk or pedal to her house.

Now here is the fun part: In a letter to me Nancy M. - who was a guest at our house here two years ago - comments about her exitement about having Giesela Sch. as her guest.And she repeats the promise which she had made to Giesela earlier: we will have such a good time. (Click on Nancy' wonderful text - and yes, I asked for Nancy's permission to post it here.)

This reminded me of an expecting mother who makes a promise to her yet unborn child:"when you are "here" I will love you and care for you even more than I do now - and we will have such a good time while you are here."

And aren't we as mature adults also aware that those loved ones who are no longer among as are sending us their promises as well? I hear my father whisper to me: "Jay, we will have such a good time - when you get here. "