The World: How Facebook Made it Smaller and How Peace Corps Made it Bigger Again

When I was in third grade, a girl, hereafter to be known as Long Lost Friend (LLF)* moved to my hometown. She joined my third grade class and we quickly became friends. I remember her lighting the menorah at my house on Chanukah, and joining her as an angel in the Christmas pageant at her Methodist church. I swam in the pool in her backyard, and she came to my dance recitals. Her mom taught me how to decoupage (an embarrassingly formative moment of my life). When we were in fourth grade, we went to the public library together to gather research for the report and diorama about the animal of your choice project. She chose a panda bear and I chose a koala. The research session was cut short by my becoming suddenly ill, and later that evening she dropped off a get-well card at my house. On the front was a koala bear hugging a eucalyptus tree. The message printed inside read, “Sorry you’re feeling ‘down under.’” Maybe I even still have it somewhere.
I also remember when at the end of fourth grade, she called me crying, to tell me that she was moving. I for some reason know that she was sitting on her father’s lap when she made this phone call, but have no idea of how I came to have this knowledge. I have a photo somewhere of the two of us with my sister hanging onto the back of the moving truck, and there is an identical photo of both of our brothers.

That was fifteen years ago. Soon after she moved, we saw each other a few times, but the most memorable part of these visits was the time her grandparents attempted to drive me across the border to Canada (she was living in Toronto then). I had no passport then, just a hand-scribbled note from my mom asking the patrol to allow her daughter to cross an international border with Mr. and Mrs. X. The guards were not impressed, but let me through anyway after giving us the requisite hard time. LLF eventually moved from Canada back to the states, and I think I saw her once in Massachusetts. After that, we lost touch for more than ten years.

A month or so ago, I received nearly identical e-mails from my brother and sister in quick succession (both more social networking on the internet savvy than I) alerting me to LLF’s Facebook status. Apparently, she joined the Peace Corps, was assigned of all places to Lesotho, and had enthusiastically posted this information on her profile. I immediately tried to contact her and subsequently, we sent a few exclamation point-riddled emails back and forth. She said in one that she had chills. So did I. She of course had some questions about Lesotho. I unfortunately did not have many answers; most were along the lines of “wait and see and enjoy being challenged and surprised.” And of course, we made tentative plans to find each other when she touched down in the mountain kingdom.

This did not seem like it would be difficult. She would actually be staying down the street from my work for a little while. Even while attending the same elementary school, we did not live in such close proximity. We will practically be in shouting range of each other, and certainly close enough to meet up. In my mind, this grand reunion takes approximately five minutes. Why? Because I can’t just leave 21 preschoolers to go play with my friend, and I am sure her training schedule is packed. But five minutes with someone you haven’t seen in more than a decade, half way around the world from where you met, in a country most people have never heard of, promises to be a pretty amazing five minutes. (Of course, I imagine the first five minutes will lead to other and longer meetings after she settles in to her more permanent placement on a mountaintop somewhere). I started thinking about how these sorts of unbelievable coincidences must happen all the time, and if it was not for Facebook, how few we would know about! Everything seemed perfect and perfectly easy.

Then Peace Corps heard about the intended reunion, and in a display of stunning paranoia informed me that LLF and I are not allowed to see each other until she swears in, early next year, and becomes an official volunteer. Apparently, trainees may not make any “trips.” Apparently, walking down the street qualifies as a trip, as trainees may not step foot out of the training center during their stay in the capital, except on the supervised and bussed trip to Shop-rite (also around the corner). I have also been told to not attempt to stop by where she is staying. Why? Peace Corps trainees may only have contact with Peace Corps employees and selected volunteers and trainers. I was told, bluntly, that were I to see LLF, I am liable to give her wrong and/or prejudiced information about Lesotho!

Wouldn’t want that. Too bad about Google, Wikipedia and the blogs of disgruntled PC volunteers and expats (this one included) that LLF is probably obsessively searching for information, any at all, about her home for the next two years. Too bad about Facebook where I can discover a long-lost friend is headed to Lesotho, and within seconds can give her all the wrong and prejudiced information I want about Lesotho.

Yeah, I could do that in person too, but mostly, I just want to see her face, so that when I run into her on the street, I know that it’s her I’m running into. But now two buildings on the same street seem no different than two buildings on different continents, though thoughts of a furtive encounter in the frozen foods aisl of Shop-rite seems an appealing option. Meet you at the fish fingers, LLF.

*I don’t want to use her real name, or a real-sounding fake name, because although I think my blog is fairly difficult to find without the address, I don’t want to get her (or someone with her pseudonym) into trouble with Peace Corps. BUT if you’re curious who this mysterious ex ‘field-dweller is, particularly Tamaques grads, shoot me a line. If you guess it, you definitely win something.

(And in my own display of paranoia- it is my heritage after all- after noticing that my blog is getting significantly more hits than usual, since I am writing so often about work, I've tried to more or less remove my name from the postings, though again, the blog does not come up on Google or anything like that.)