Today is my two year anniversary in Mali and I've been trying not to think to hard about my departure but it is fast approaching and saying goodbye has become a more complicated process than I would have liked. After I told the first few people when I was leaving site I decided that I wasn't going to tell anyone else. Obviously my host family and coworkers and neighbors all know but the people who I run into daily (like my husband at the post office) just make my life more difficult when I tell them I'm leaving soon and do not know when I shall return. I'm also at this point where I don't want to leave, which is strange to realize, but I just finished reading this wonderful book about the Lost Boys of Sudan called What is the What. It is a fabulous story and really gives a good picture of the transition an African would have to go through when moving to the States and I'm realizing I'll have to make those same transitions, in a much easier way, but nevertheless, it's stressing me out.
I have also been glancing at the blogs of several of the brand spanking new trainees who arrived off the 'boat' on July 10th, and it makes me feel nostalgic for what I am about to finish and what I have done and also sad cause I really want to do it again. I also looked at another volunteer's blog today and they had all these amazing pictures of their travels in Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry and if I could stay and just travel I would definitely do it.
Right now I'm trying to pack up my stuff because I'm sending all my furniture to a new volunteer's future site tomorrow. Then I have a friend visiting from Senegal then I'm hopping on the Peace Corps shuttle to Bamako with Fili, my dog, and delivering her to her new adoptive parents (ex-pats working at the embassy) and then getting all my stuff together to leave Mali. I'm not really sad to leave, I'm definitely ready, but knowing that I won't see most of my Malian friends for a long time or ever again is hanging over my head. The children in my host family the other day were asking "When are you coming back?" like it's in a few months. Saying goodbye to kids is the hardest because you know if you do see them again they will be grown up and changed and maybe not even remember you. At any rate, things are winding down here and I'm very excited to be home. I arrive in Spokane August 30th at 11:58 pm PST. Abigail and my mom and dad will meet me at the airport then we will go straight to Taco Bell's 24 drive thru (they still have that right?) the to bed in a real bed and not on a foam mattress!
It's taking a while to get this wedding blog posted, I'm working on it, but it's a very long blog so soon it will be up! Happy Bastille Day (a little late)!
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