Peru-Turkmenistan Post

As many of you know, Kelly, one of my favorite people in the world, is currently in Turkmenistan with the Peace Corps. We´re doing the same thing on opposite ends of the world, but in very different situations. Kelly´s internet access is extremely limited, so I sent her a letter via snail mail sometime in February. I´m pretty sure I made history as the first person in Peru to send mail to Turkmenistan. (And the second! Both trips to the post office produced the question "¿Donde es Turkmenistan?") I had no idea how long it would take my letter to reach her, but my best guess was about 6 months. I was a little off, though. I received a response from her within a month. I was pretty amazed at the things she had to say. I may be struggling to learn Spanish, but the people of her city speak a blend of Turkmen, Russian, and Uzbek, so it´s pretty much impossible to learn. I was most shocked and saddened, however, when she told me she had (temporarily) stopped the beating of first graders. Thank goodness I don´t have to deal with that. Soviet habits die hard, I guess. I´m glad she´s there to stop them.