Heather and Damon Update

Damon and UMiami President
Donna Shalala

Heather and host family grandma

Shelly and I are very proud parents.  Our kids, Heather and Damon, are doing great.  Here's an update.  Both are starting school this week.  Heather has been in Peace Corps training in Kazakhstan  virtually non-stop since early March.  Her Kazakh language training is coming along very well, and she has lived with two host families in two different cities.  Last week, she returned to Birlik to visit her first host family.  Her account of the visit is wonderful and chronicled in her blog, Heather and Thither, http://www.heather-renee-campbell.blogspot.com/ . .. there are some wonderful pictures of a very happy reunion.  Her official job as an English teacher in Zhetysai begins next week, but she has already given volunteer English courses to a group of high school graduates headed to college, and delivered advanced English seminars to some of her teaching colleagues at the high school.  We are fortunate to be able to call her every week, and delight in hearing her new adventures. 
Damon has just started his Junior year at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, and appreciates the plight of the disabled . . . he had knee surgery last month in Albuquerque, and has had to keep weight off his leg for 6 weeks.  Despite this, he managed to drive across the country and provision a new home in time for the first day of classes.  His summer internship with an outstanding civil engineering firm went very well, and he had many opportunities to practice the engineering skills he's learning.  If you want to know more, you need to be one of his 678+ friends on Facebook!
Shelly and I are off to look in on our other "child" Bailey, who is serving a 30 day sentence in the Mauritius quarantine facility.  We miss all of our kids and are proud of how they are dealing with their respective challenges!