Vintage E-mail, With Endnotes.

From: j-----@padis.gn.apc.org

To:     ohsu.wpo2 (deppmeie)

Date: 6/30/95 6:24 am

Subj: tomato and cheese omelet

Hi Sis,¹

Thank you for the doily! Did you know that I have been coveting the doilies you’ve made for Mom and others, and now you are helping me not to break the tenth commandment.² Doesn’t that make you feel good? It is gorgeous, and we are pleased to have it in our home. It’s really perfect, because not only does it look nice, but it reminds us of you and it will be easy to pack and bring home. So, thanks again.³

We were very happy to receive the package⁴ from Mom and Dad this week. (Obviously we got it, since that’s where the doily was). It was like Christmas and my birthday⁵ all rolled into one. Of course we were thankful to get some of the things we had asked for, like sponges and Kool-Aid⁶ and twisters⁷, but the surprises really pleased us – dried fruit and OAT SQUARES⁸ and wheat germ. Thanks for your part in making the audio tapes. It was really nice to hear some familiar music! J was listening to Jackson Browne while making breakfast Thursday morning.⁹

It’s only 11 am and already it has been a very happy day for me. J made breakfast for me (tomato and cheese omelet in our new frying pan), and I opened my doily and birthday cards. J brought out from hiding our half-kilo chocolate bar – but now that we have Hershey’s Miniatures we can wait on the chocolate bar for a while. He also gave me a silver cross pendant, a very beautiful Ethiopian design. We need to buy a chain before I can wear it, though.¹⁰

We came into the office today to check e-mail and do a little work, since we don’t have language school. (The last Friday of each month is prayer day for SIM, the mission that runs the language school). My friend and co-worker Joy brought me a gift from Kenya, where she was for a conference last week – it’s a woven bag like the ones that were popular in high school, but this one has a drawstring at the top.¹¹ After lunch today we are planning to go to an exhibition on Women in Development. Some of the FH/E nurses are participating in the exhibition and have brought some handcrafts made by FH/E women’s groups to sell.

Learning Amharic has been challenging so far! Last week we learned the alphabet and this week we started on simple sentences like “My name is Sara” and “I am a student.” I’m sorry I can’t write those for you in Amharic on the computer, but I’ll send you a handwritten sample of fidel soon.

I hope you have a good time celebrating Mom’s birthday¹² this weekend. I think I sent her postcard too late for it to get there by Saturday, but it’s coming. Eat a piece of pizza for us! We will be eating pizza tonight with a group of friends in celebration of three birthdays – mine, J’s¹³, and Renate’s (she’s a German veterinarian working with the Southern Baptist Mission). We’re also going to the Hilton to play miniature golf, though I’m pretty sure it’s going to rain on us.¹⁴

Wow, I just found out that we have a package¹⁵ waiting at the post office. Guess we’ll have to add that to our list of afternoon activities.¹⁶

Enjoy yourselves this weekend!

Love, Sara (the old lady)¹⁷ and J

OKAY, WAIT! I just got your e-mail from earlier in the week, and sadly it is too late to reply. I was thinking of calling Mom and Dad today, but J suggested that it would be easier and cheaper to have you call us sometime next week. So, how about if we set a date for early next week? How about if I say call us at 6 am your time, 4 pm our time, on Tuesday? The problem with 8 am our time is that we have to be at school at 8:30, and it’s across town; we have school until 3 pm,¹⁸ but we can get to the office by 4. We’ll check our e-mail on Monday, so if you have an alternative suggestion let us know!¹⁹

**********

¹ Lisa.

² You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. Including, I suppose, her doily.

³ We still have the doily.

⁴ Our first package!

⁵ It was actually my birthday.

⁶ Fruity flavors help you drink more fluids when you’re not feeling well.

⁷ I… have no idea.

⁸ My all-time favorite cereal.

⁹ He still does this.

¹⁰ Purchased chain, have worn, still love. A+ gift.

¹¹ Sorry, Joy. I still have a bag like this that I bought for myself, but I'm not sure what happened to the one you gave me.

¹² The day after mine.

¹³ Ten days after mine.

¹⁴ I’m pretty sure our miniature golf plans were rained out, as I have no recollection of that outing.

¹⁵ Our second package!

¹⁶ We had to pick up our packages in person at the main post office. More on that later…

¹⁷ Seriously? I was 26.

¹⁸ Nice to know, as we couldn’t quite remember the hours.

¹⁹ I do not miss being ten time zones away from my family, or trying to set up international phone calls by e-mail.