(RM) Snail mail - last chance

Snail mail - last chance

Saturday, 15 September 2007

Last time I posted this type of message was in late April, about three weeks before Grit left Germany for LuiKotal. A few people sent small parcels to Germany at that time, which were much appreciated when they finally got here - Thanks!

Since then, there has not been another opportunity for me to receive any physical mail here until now. The director of our field site will be arriving from Germany in a few days, and he indeed has a care package of specific little things that I asked my mom to send me. In a few weeks, another plane will come to take him out, and will bring in Joel, a new member of the research team. Joel is currently in the US, and has graciously agreed to accept personal mail for me until is departure.

Soooo.... If you're feeling like it, please send me some mail via Joel. I've promised him that anything that arrives for me will be very small, basically limited to the size of a CD. What I would really love are CDs of photos. Please share your lives with me, showing what's been going on over in North America since I was last around to participate. Yeah, that means photos of family gatherings, photos of vacations, photos of mad partying, and yes, even baby photos.

In addition, I've got a specific request for any and all photos of the 2007 Burning Man festival. If you went, please share your photos with me! If you're a burner who's connected to other burners, please pass the message on - Hello AZBurners! I've asked my little sister to put a bunch of burncasts on a CD for me in that care package from my mom, but if you want to ensure I get some of those send them too.

We're really starved for any current events info or photos, so if you want to mine the internet for some interesting tidbits of news and burn that onto a disc, that would be cool too. Maybe copy some of the latest photo montages of big stories from the news sites? I don't know, get creative.

If you've got a few choice DVDs to send, we can watch them on the laptop. Nothing too risqué! Selections of mp3s you'd like to share will also be appreciated. The laptop can read DVDs or CDs for data and music, and my mp3 player has over 80GB of space left.

Alternatively, just send a simple postcard, or a handwritten letter with a couple of cut-out newspaper clippings or printed-out photos. As long as the physical contents are minimal, Joel should be able to pack it in his luggage, and I'll be happy to receive it:) Again, please keep the weight and volume to a minimimum - I've asked Joel to open everything and repackage it all together, so superfluous elements like cardboard or cases will probably be discarded.


Deadlines: The latest any mail should reach him is September 28th! Sorry that's such short notice, but at least his address is within the continental US. He'll be en route for most of the following week, and should be here around October 5th or so. If it arrives after he leaves, I'll probably get it around next summer.


If you decide you've got time to burn something onto a CD for me and send it by then, here's the mailing address:

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Update:
Joel never made it. His visa application was rejected, and if he had delayed his arrival in Congo the charter plane to the forest would have been long past. Too bad. He's sending my mail to my mom, and I'll get it in early December when I return to North America.


Thanks in advance!


-Ryan à LuiKotal