Finding Friends on Crack, AKA Facebook

Twenty-one years ago I spent the best summer of my life in Kiserian, Kenya, with some of the best people I’ve ever had the privilege to know. But that was long before email or cell phones or Skype with free long distance, so many of those relationships were lost in snail mail.

But now, with the advent of Facebook (which is like crack, by the way – one hit and you keep coming back for more) finding long lost friends has become simple. When my twin sister was planning our high school reunion she used Facebook to reconnect with lots of our classmates. And when I saw how easy it was I thought I’d try to find some of my teammates from Kenya.

I quickly found four of my best buddies, Shannon, Dan, James and Jim and formed a group page for our team. But even though I had full names and addresses (albeit 20 year old addresses) of our other teammates, I hit a brick wall and couldn’t find anyone else.

Until today. Angela found the Kenya group, joined, and sent me a friend request. Nothing too remarkable in that. Except that when I went to look at her profile and picture I realized my former teammate had taught Amy Michigan History the first year we lived here. And I didn’t even realize it was her.

In my defense, when we were in Kenya Angela called herself Angi and had short, blond, curly hair going on. I didn’t recognize Mrs. Angela with the long, straight brown hair as my former teammate. (And in her defense, I was, shall we say, pre-children 21 years ago. My smile may be the same but precious little else is.)

So for the past three years, one of my Kenya friends has not only been living 20 minutes from me, she taught my daughter history and her son claims my son as one of his best buddies in the homeschool co-op they attend.

To say I’m anxious to get together with her over coffee/diet Coke is an understatement.

And a note to all my girlfriends out there: ladies, please, PLEASE, for the love of Pete put your maiden name on your Facebook page! You never know who will discover you!

I dug through boxes in the basement this afternoon to find a picture of Angela. This is the best I could do; Shannon and I are in front, Angela's in the background. Most of my pictures are slides so I'll have to have them made into prints. I'm anxious to look at them now that I have a friend with the same memories to pour over them with!