Another email from Wyatt
from: Wyatt Ammon
to: MOM, Dad, Ginger Ammon, Kyla Ammon, Allison Ammon
date: Sep 16, 2005 12:45 PM
subject: I made it
Fam,
I'm here. I'm alive. I'm having a great time.
I don't have time to write nearly as much as I'd like to. I made it here in one piece and have jumped through all of the necessary hoops to get to Kitwe, Zambia. I just started my training (which is actually in Mwekera, a village outside of Kitwe) and I'll finish that in the middle of November. It's been a crazy trip so far.
I spent four days in a village with a current volunteer. It's exactly what I hoped for and feared. There are no cars. No electricity. No water. For the most part, hardly any people. They still operate using the tribal system in conjunction with their governmental system. They cook over campfires and wash dishes and clothes in streams. They bathe out of a bucket. They drink home brewed corn beer out of gas cans. It's utter madness and I love it.
My other volunteers seem to be really good people. There are exceptions, of course, but I have found a few that will be good friends for the next couple of years (even if I will rarely be seeing them after training). I couldn't be happier about having chosen to come here. And don't worry - I won't come back a total weirdo freak. Well, not any more than I was before I left.
And don't worry - I'm going to be writing REAL letters to you all individually when I get the chance. Things have been rushed and regimented, so I haven't had much time to myself. When I get to my site in November I'll have nothing but time so I'll get more in depth then.
I hope you're all doing good. I hope the move went well and that you found a job, Allie. I hope you are adjusting well to having a new obnoxious teenager in the house, M&D. I hope you got the job, Kyla. And I guess nothing of importance is going on with you Ginger so I won't acknowledge that you exist. KIDDING
I found out that I will be speaking Lunda and living near Mwinilunga in the Northwestern Province. That's near the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola in that little tip of Zambia. It's a jungle region with waterfalls and abundant fruits and water, which is a very good thing. The rest of the country is bone dry at this time of year and the sky is filled with smoke from the native Zambians burning the countryside. I am one of only 3 people who got to go to that part of the country (out of 24 in my group) so I'm feeling pretty lucky!
I better cut this off now.
See you in a couple,
Wyatt
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thank you, ginger.
Ginger, I've been thinking a lot lately, as usual. But Wyatt's first line really strikes me. "I'm here. I'm alive. I'm having a great time." It makes me happy that he was so free and happy in his last days. I think that is how he wants us to live, in the moment. The last three sentences of Desiderata are "With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy." Wyatt really liked Desiderata, and I can really hear him in the words.
Oh my gosh. I read that and think back on what I've done in the past almost 2 years and I can't say anything that would have made him proud. I'm ashamed and I miss him. A whole lot
Like I told you on the phone, nobody in our family "did the trick" despite probably giving it consideration a time or two, I think that in itself is something to be a little proud of.