The Start of a New Adventure

Disclaimer:  This blog may contain material which some may find disgusting, gross, nasty, TMI, gag inducing, sappy, or at the very least corny.  Read at your own risk.  

Melinda and I met at Peace Corps staging in Philadelphia on October 5th 2015.  All 36 members of our group (Education 85) were meeting for the first time before traveling to Lesotho, Africa.  During an ice breaker exercise we shook hands and had our first conversation, which went something like this:

Me: Hi I’m Joel.

Melinda: Hi I’m Melinda.

Me: Melinda, where are you from?

Melinda: I’m from Colorado.  Where are you from?

Me: Oregon

Melinda:  I like Oregon.  I think we should be friends.

Me:  I think we’re going to be kindred spirits.  

After that encounter, we spent the next few days traveling to our training village in Lesotho, where we would spend the next 10 weeks.  Melinda went to a house in the village Ha Ramonyaloe and I was put up in Ha Motebesoane about a 50 minute walk away.  

The next 10 weeks would be filled with training sessions, meet ups at the local bar, and solo hikes.  We didn’t really speak to each other the whole time.  Then on one of our last nights before we left for our respective sites, all of the wild youth in our group left the bar for the night and some of the more seasoned volunteers stayed behind.  Melinda was sitting across from me and we started talking.  We quickly found out that we really enjoyed each others company.  The next night we stayed behind again to talk.  I asked her to dance and we had a really good time together.  

The following day was the 16th of December, the day we Swore in officially as Peace Corps Volunteers.  The ceremony was nice and we had a fun party lined up with all of our host mothers.  The bar donated several cases of beer for our…   uhm  …  uh  …  ahem  …  “support” of them throughout the previous 10 weeks.  I’ll just show you what happened next.

The following day we packed up and parted ways for our sites.  I was sent to the far NE corner in the highlands of Mokhotlong and Melinda was sent to the far SW end of the country to the beautiful Quthing district.  We were essentially the furthest two volunteers from each other in the whole country.  On top of that, Melinda gave me a fake phone number (she may recount a different story but this is my blog).  Eventually she missed me so much she contacted Lisa and we were finally able to text and talk.  Also there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon that would help us see each other more often than we thought, training conferences. 

This is the first photo I ever took of Melinda.  I was selected to be our district security representative and Melinda and I were both elected to be members of the peer support network.  This meant we would be able to see each other for conferences several times per year.  Furthermore, as teachers, we had vacations during school (think spring break) as well as out of school vacations to look forward to together.  

We’ve had some great times together.  We’re about to complete our last backpacking trip from Sani Pass to Sehlabathebe National Park during independence break in early October.  

In between the breaks, we communicate via WhatsApp text messages, voice messages, and phone calls.  We talk almost every night, in fact it feels weird to not hear Melinda’s voice before I go to sleep.

 We had our final completion of service conference September 1-3rd.  The conference was located at the historic Thaba Bosiu (mountain of the night) near Maseru.  The plateau served as a stronghold for the country's first leader Moshoeshoe I.  From the top of the plateau, Moshoeshoe was able to secure refuge for the Basotho people and fend off invaders again and again.  The area is sacred to the Basotho people and seemed like the perfect location to complete this chapter of our relationship in this silly little country.  

I had been planting the idea of a hike for some time now with the aim of “getting more photos of us together”.  On the second and final night of the conference Melinda and I hiked up the plateau.    I took a few photos of her on the way up and she took a few of me.  Then we took a couple photo in front of some flowering blue agave.  We walked to the far end of the plateau and came across a grass field under the perfect sunset light.  I setup my camera on a tripod and the plan began to unfold…

First we took a photo of us sitting down.  I walked over and checked the camera and everything looked alright.  We then took one standing up and I walked over and checked the camera again.  Everything looked good so I tried to set up the camera’s built in intervalometer to automatically take several photos in a row.  When I walked over to stand next to Melinda, I noticed it wasn’t working properly so I had to return back to the camera and change a setting to get it working.  Then the camera started clicking away and I walked over to her.  I told her “We took one photo of us sitting and one photo of us standing.  So how about we try one with just you standing?”  I got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and said “Melinda Anne Johnson will you marry me?”  She said “Yes”, I think.  It was all kind of a blur at that point.  I think she said “yes” but as I write this my memory eludes me.  Anyways we’ll just say she said “yes” for logistical and legal purposes.  

Edit: I just consulted with Melinda and she said her reply was “Of course”.  

The camera kept snapping away the whole time.  I set it to take one photo a second for 140 seconds.  Of all the photos it took, this one ended up being my favorite.  

We headed to the restaurant where we had dinner and met with the rest of our Education 85 cohorts.  We are incredibly blessed to be a part of a really awesome group of Peace Corps Volunteers.  Only two volunteers have had early terminations of service and one transferred to Peace Corps Botswana.  Other than those three, we all made it, which is almost unheard of in Peace Corps.  After some entertaining superlatives and a song, we announced our engagement to our fellow volunteers, who were naturally excited.    The whole engagement was an incredible experience.

Here are some mostly new photos of our past two years together.

So that’s it.  I feel like the luckiest man in the world for finding the love of my life in this little country.  We’re very much looking forward to the next chapter in our lives together.  We are officially done with the Peace Corps on November 21st.  Beyond living in the general Portland, Oregon area, we have no idea what comes next.  I’m both excited and anxious but with Melinda by my side I’m 100% certain that everything is going to be alright.

Peace,

- Joel