Their new assignments were two or three hours apart (depending on the quality of transportation on a given day). Mr. Fogelman could not stop thinking about her, and a couple of months later began writing long letters. "He wrote me letters every Sunday, which is a big deal when you don't have a phone or Internet," said Ms. McKeever, who traveled an hour each way to the post office. She responded sporadically at first, then began writing more often "about a bunch of everything." "His letters were so sweet," Ms. McKeever remembered. "We'd see each other in the capital. When it was the two of us, it was really fun to see him." They saw each other during training sessions every three months, and in April 2005 the relationship became more romantic. "I invited her over to my house," said Mr. Fogelman, who bought a bottle of cheap South African wine. "I felt so adult and romantic. It tasted terrible. It was too late to go back to her village." The relationship survived the end of their Peace Corps assignments, in December 2005. "He moved to New York," Ms. McKeever said. They still speak Sesotho to each other, and had the queen of Lesotho, who was studying at Columbia, as a dinner guest last year in their tiny Harlem apartment. "That was a pretty perfect moment," Mr. Fogelman said. "It was perfect to unite our life in Lesotho and New York in that wonderful way."
Stacey McKeever and Charles Fogelman met in Philadelphia in November 2003, right before their group of some two dozen Peace Corps volunteers left for Lesotho in southern Africa
Stacey McKeever and Charles Fogelman
By ROSALIE R. RADOMSKY
Published: October 29, 2010
Stacey Elizabeth McKeever and Charles Joseph Fogelman were married Saturday evening at reBar, a restaurant and event space in Brooklyn. Andy Grotelueschen, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated.
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The bride, 33, is keeping her name. She is a research coordinator in public health research administration at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, and after this week will work as a consultant from Champaign, Ill. She has been involved in studies of H.I.V. and drug-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa.
The bride graduated from Sarah Lawrence and received a master's in public health from Columbia, from which she also received an M.B.A.
She is a daughter of Deborah E. McKeever and Daniel P. McKeever of Rockport, Mass. The bride's father works in Chelsea, Mass., as a wholesale fruit and produce distributor in the Boston area. Her mother, a social worker, is an investigator with the Department of Children and Families in Malden, Mass.
The bridegroom, 30, is pursuing a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Until August, he was a marketing analyst at American Express in Manhattan. He graduated from Marquette and received a master's in international studies from the City University Graduate Center.
He is the son of Margaret B. Fogelman of Glenview, Ill., and Jay Fogelman of Budapest. The bridegroom's mother teaches seventh grade and directs the reading program at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview. His father is a senior lecturer in technology management at the business school of the Central European University in Budapest.
The couple met in Philadelphia in November 2003, right before their group of some two dozen Peace Corps volunteers left for Lesotho in southern Africa.
"She was very pretty, and something about her independence and faith in herself is what drew me in," he said.
Yet during their three-month orientation, in a village called Mahobong, their contact chiefly consisted of studying Sesotho, Lesotho's language, and speaking it over dinner or on breaks.
"I thought he was a bit of a nerd," said Ms. McKeever, who was older than most of the volunteers.
"She kept herself apart, and that made her more interesting, and she didn't want to engage in the childishness of many of us," he said. "Her sense of maturity was interesting."
In January, at a party the volunteers had before going off to different villages, Mr. Fogelman squeezed in a friendly chat that lasted a few hours.
Their new assignments were two or three hours apart (depending on the quality of transportation on a given day).
Mr. Fogelman could not stop thinking about her, and a couple of months later began writing long letters.
"He wrote me letters every Sunday, which is a big deal when you don't have a phone or Internet," said Ms. McKeever, who traveled an hour each way to the post office.
She responded sporadically at first, then began writing more often "about a bunch of everything."
"His letters were so sweet," Ms. McKeever remembered. "We'd see each other in the capital. When it was the two of us, it was really fun to see him."
They saw each other during training sessions every three months, and in April 2005 the relationship became more romantic. "I invited her over to my house," said Mr. Fogelman, who bought a bottle of cheap South African wine. "I felt so adult and romantic. It tasted terrible. It was too late to go back to her village."
The relationship survived the end of their Peace Corps assignments, in December 2005. "He moved to New York," Ms. McKeever said.
They still speak Sesotho to each other, and had the queen of Lesotho, who was studying at Columbia, as a dinner guest last year in their tiny Harlem apartment.
"That was a pretty perfect moment," Mr. Fogelman said. "It was perfect to unite our life in Lesotho and New York in that wonderful way."
