It seems that I have had a case of blogger’s block. There has been so much going on, and I haven’t been able to, or maybe haven’t wanted to, write about it. Greg has been visiting for several weeks, and he will be here for a couple more. Having a visitor from home so close to the end of my service has really helped me to start looking a little closer at my departure. It is just now hitting me, and I don’t think I really thought about how emotional this time would be for me. So it has been an interesting two weeks in village, and poor Greg has borne the brunt of it. But it is really good; it is giving me a chance to process a lot of this before I return to the States, where I think that it will be harder to deal with.
But it hasn’t been all drama and angst – it has been great having someone to share this time with. I also just hosted my replacement in village for five days. I was really looking forward to this, because I wanted to have a chance to get a feel for the person that would be taking over my life. I’m embarrassed to say that I even went to our training center near Bamako a few weeks ago to spy on him (none of the trainees knew their assignments at that point, so I felt like I’d have the perfect opportunity to casually roll up and see if he was worthy). I saw my chance to investigate one day at breakfast; he was sitting at a table alone. I pulled up a chair, shot the breeze about life in homestay, and played it cool. Others joined the table, and the conversation naturally turned towards my site and what my service had been like. So I started to describe my village glowingly (but not too eagerly – I didn’t want it to sound like a hard sell), and talk about how rewarding it has been. I was very proud of my performance. That was when Future Mandoli Volunteer says “Yeah, I think I am replacing you.” So much for me being sneaky. Now it is two weeks later, and Future Mandoli Volunteer – his name is Christopher - has had the chance to check out village for a few days. And I think everyone is happy. I feel like I am leaving village in the hands of someone capable, and he feels like he is coming to a site that is not a complete disaster – so everyone wins. And it is so incredibly beautiful right now, you would be crazy not to want to live here (it is picturesque enough to even make up for the other 9 months of dry, dusty hell). I couldn’t be happier.
Now Greg and I are going to run up to Gao for a couple of days and squeeze in a visit with a Carter Center guinea worm eradication project (rumor is we might get to pull a guinea worm out of someone’s elbow – I’m sure Greg is really appreciative of this vacation development), before he flies to Thailand and I cry myself to sleep every night for my last weeks in village. Oh yeah, I almost forgot – the last day that I am in village, the head of the Peace Corps funding agency in Washington is coming to my site to look at my projects. Nothing like a little pressure and intense, administrative scrutiny to send me on my way. Can’t wait.
And for those of you that have been asking, my return home looks like this: I leave my site on September 15th with the visitor from Peace Corps Washington, spend the night in Sevare, and then head down to Bamako the next morning. I spend the week in Bamako getting a medical exam, meeting with my supervisor and country director, and taking my final language test. My father will be flying in that week. On Friday we will cheer on the new volunteers as they get officially sworn in, and then my dad and I will race back up to village for a few days to celebrate Malian Independence Day (Septmeber 22nd), have a going away party, get lots of benedictions, and say our goodbyes. Then it is off to Burkina Faso for a night before flying off to Ghana for a few days of ocean, rainforest, yummy food and cheap beer. I will see my dad off to his return flight home, and then spend a few more days on the beach seeing if I can even out this ridiculous tan that I have acquired over the last few years. On October 4th I fly to London and spend the night in Canterbury so that I can be there for an open house at University of Kent on Saturday. I hopefully will have a chance to meet with some professors and check out their ethnobotany graduate program and life on campus. Then it is back to London for a couple of nights (I don't think I can afford much more), to eat more yummy food and drink a few pints before flying home on the 11th. And there you have it. Before you know it, I'll be home, and you'll have the pleasure of seeing me freak out as I realize that I am back home (because that realization has not started dawning yet), and really don't know what the heck I'm doing.
A few of the things that I will certainly miss:
Aggressively friendly children
The view from my toilet
The sky
