December 1992

Dear everyone,

In last year's Christmas note, we were still in Ouagadougou, putting the finishing touches on a new school and wondering what we would be doing in 1992-93.  By the end of the school year, we were incredibly fulfilled, but exhausted from four years in a difficult and unhealthy post.  We had completed the school on time and within budget,  enjoyed six months in a beautiful new work environment, traveled to Nairobi for one last look at paradise, and made peace with the realization that it was time to come home.  In June, we bid adieu to our friends, our many memories, and our last case of diarrhea, heading for our home in Columbia, South Carolina.  Our task was to recuperate, renew our energies, and finally finish the Ph.D. that I had been working on for so many years.

I am happy to report that we have completed all our tasks.  I plunged into my dissertation research with vigor, crunched the data, and whipped off the written portion in a matter of weeks.  With the help of a thoroughly committed advisor, a reasonable committee, and a supportive spouse, I became Doctor Kenny at the end of October.  In between spurts of creativity on the computer, Sharon organized travel adventures for us to the shore of New Jersey, to Cancun, Mexico, where we pretended that we were nouveau riche and infamous, and to the mountains of the Carolinas, resplendent in their fall foliage.  We strolled the beaches of Sanibel Island on the Gulf of Mexico, finding exotic birdlife and shells in numbers that made the national debt look trivial, and we explored the Spanish moss draped paths of St. Simon's Island in Georgia, soaked in colonial American history.  We are now rested, relaxed, and ready to go.

Where?  Back to Africa, of course!  By the time you read this, Sharon and I will be on the way to our latest post -- Kinshasa, Zaire.  We will be working at the American School of Kinshasa (known as TASOK).  I will be secondary principal/counselor, and Sharon will hold some form of hyphenated job that neither we nor the school have quite figured out yet, but that's part of what makes it an adventure.

Zaire, of course, is the old Belgian Congo, a country in which Tarzan could find a comfortable home swinging in the rain forest.  It is located in Central Africa and was explored largely by Stanley in the late 1800s after finding "Dr. Livingstone, I presume" alive and well.  We are told that pygmies still inhabit the forests, and troops of gorillas roam furtively on the slopes of the eastern mountains.  This will be an entirely new experience for us after having previously lived in Hemingway country (Kenya) and nobody's country (Burkina Faso).  Zaire, in contrast, is wet, tropical, hot, steamy, heavily populated (at least around the capital), unpredictable, and exciting, but since we haven't been there yet, we can't really comment too much on what we will find.  We hope it will be pleasant.

We will live on the campus of the school, an institution built for some 600 students, but which now caters to about 200 due to civil disturbances last year.  The country has massive problems, including a huge foreign debt and rampant corruption, and there is no guarantee that it will remain peaceful while we are there, but we will be "relatively" isolated on the walled campus should things turn messy again.  We are hoping that this new posting will allow us to explore not only Central Africa, but also the emerging nations of Namibia and Botswana, as well as Zimbabwe and South Africa.

We will spend our last month (December) in the U.S., organizing ourselves for our newest adventure and relaxing with family on a one week cruise in the Caribbean.  Next summer, we may return to the U.S., do some shopping, and then find a creative way to celebrate our 25th (!) wedding anniversary.  Until then, Merry Christmas, love to you all, and hope to hear from you.  Our address as of January 1, 1993 is:

Sharon and Ken Vogel - T
AmEmbassy - Kinshasa
Unit 31550
APO AE 09828