The day I drove into D.C. was an eventful one. In Alexandria, I visited one of my oldest childhood friends, her own kids (whom I'd not yet met) now about the age we were when we first started playing together.
Then I crossed into Arlington and got to have dinner with one of my good friends from Peace Corps Morocco and his wife, whom I'd also never met before. (They answered the door draped in the quilt I made them as a wedding present.)
From there, it was on to the Silver Spring home of my fabulous friend of 15 years (from back in the days of study abroad in Padova), L. In between making a visit to her daughter's preschool classroom to help out with the school's international day and L's working from home schedule, I helped out with her making two skirts, two cloth napkins, and a shoulder bag. Not a bad sewing haul in less than 24 hours! (This is L. working hard to sew a straight line. Didn't want anyone who doesn't know her to think her face always looks like that.)
I've never really considered D.C. before. I mean, I think I visited once as a child, and then spent a long weekend there in high school seeing the sights when my choir was selected to represent Wisconsin for festivities around the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII. When our Morocco program got evacuated, they flew us straight to D.C., with plenty of time to explore the city then, too...but because I'm not a very politically inclined person, it never really occurred to me to take serious interest in it as a potential place to live. But in addition to seeing some of the iconic sights on this trip....
...I was reminded that along with its heavy political emphasis, D.C. is the place to be for people who work (or want to work) internationally. The place is dripping with Peace Corps connections, among a gazillion other international organizations. It was so fun and exhilarating to hear that one person I asked after had moved to India, another was working in Afghanistan, and a third was on a work trip to the Philippines. You'd think there would be no one left in the city, but still it was the opposite. I've barely made it out to the East Coast at all during my time in Denver, so it had been 7-9 years since I'd seen the half-dozen Peace Corps Madagascar friends I got to catch up with while in town.
Heading out of the city, it was more Mada fun. First I stopped in Baltimore to see K, who I'd not connected with since she left Madagascar in 2004. She took me on a fabulous walk around the city, and there happened to be some sort of pirate festival going on, which created exactly the kind of atmosphere of absurdity that we so often found ourselves in in Madagascar. (This is K standing in line for coffee behind a pirate. Didn't want anyone who doesn't know her to think her face always looks like that. I'm just now realizing that it can be really hard to tell when someone is making a silly face if you aren't familiar with her visage at rest.)
From Baltimore, it was on to the central Pennsylvanian town of Berwick, to see yet another Peace Corps Mada friend and her husband, who are posing here outside the church where they got married.
And from here, I'm still northbound....
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