July 14, 1977 (Letter from Barb N)

Ciao, come eta?  Bene?  That is the extent of my Neapolitan?  Life is going well for me and the thought of 30 days left leaves me with a good feeling.  I am ever looking forward to leaving here.

Leroy and I are getting along fine.  He wants to go back to the States in August so he can get involved in a tech school.  He says it's about time he starts making plans for the future for training in his field.  He is employed by the Texas Bell Telephone Company and he usually works on lines. I would like him to stay here through October because once he leaves it will be almost unbearable here.  Most of the people know are transferring now.  But we have to sit down and decide what will be best.

We are on a somewhat decent watchbill.  We work eight hour watches with double backs. Between watches we get 80 hours off.  I like the 7 hour watches and the time off.  We only have two 8 hours double-backs so It' snot too bad of a deal.

I should add that if Leroy goes home in August he will definitely up to to Pa at Xmas.  In a way I would like him to be in Warren at Xmas time.

I was sick a few weeks ago.  My stomach was full of gas and I couldn't keep any food down.  It could be because I have changed back to eating a lot of meat plus I have probably had my share of vino.  So I am settling down and I have started to do my yoga again.  I have a lot more time now. But we are going to be short people the end of the month so we might get "screwed" again real soon unless we get new people in real soon.

Leroy has helped me a lot in the past few months.  I feel that I have made a lot of progress and I am opening up with people.  I also feel I am able to relax when I could not before.  I think you'll find Leroy an interesting person even if he is still pretty rambunctious.  But Leroy is a few years younger than me but he looks older.  I find that age does not make that much of a difference.  I am sure that I will enjoy spending my life with Leroy.

It sounds good getting a ride with you back to Mass.  I hope to spend a month with you.  I don't know where I will go afterwards.  I will have to wait and see.

Not much else is going on.

Take care of yourself.