One Week Left

I thought when I reached this point I would feel more ready to leave. I'm in a state of total bliss with Mali and Malians right now. I keep meeting wonderful people and doing new things and I'm feeling a little bit like I don't want to leave. Trust me, I will but it's not going to be easy. I've also met a lot of Americans recently who I will be so sad to leave too. It's funny because normally I a really short fuse with Malians but lately, the last two weeks, I love every Malian I meet. I'm so enamored with Mali right now that I am actually questioning whether or not I want to leave. I think at this point I'm just scared. When I'm finished with Peace Corps it's kind of a big leap into a different life that I can't predict. I don't have a job or any concrete plans. I want to move to DC but I don't have any source of money when I get there, or a place to live or a job...so that's kind of daunting at the moment.

Saying goodbye to my close friends was harder than I expected. It was certainly more emotional than I would have predicted especially from Malians. My homologue is my best friend in Mali, she has taken such good care of me and I really think I would have been lost without her. She partly my confidant but also treats me like I'm one of her kids which is a prettys special thing here. When you say goodbye in Mali you give blessings and they tell you to greet the people in the place where you are going, then you shake hands with your left hand. In Mali you always do things with your right hand. It is rude even to hand someone something with your left hand. You shake with your left hand when you leave because you are intentionally being rude, so that you will return someday and right the wrong. Also, they say that when you shake when your left hand you are giving your heart to the person, since your heart is on the left side. When I finally said goodbye to my homologue we hugged then shook hands with our left hands and she got sad, and started to cry. That was really hard. I've been doing this little tradition and it's really making me emotional. I'm doing this rollercoaster emotional thing and it's really hard. Saying goodbye to my fellow Peace Corps volunteers is sad too. I know I'll keep in contact with them but being here is so much different than the States. We have shared this amazing experience and by saying goodbye to them it's really emphasizing how different my life is going to be after I leave here.

I am leaving on Saturday to go to The Gambia then I will be heading to Dakar and flying out on the 29th. I arrive in Spokane at midnight on August 30th. I'm going to be pretty busy while I'm but I want to try to see as many people as I can. If you want to hang out just let me know and I'll do my best. I know it sucks that I'll only be home for a month, but I gotta get my life rolling so everyone can come visit me in DC! I'm not going to have a party in Spokane so just call my mom and schedule a time to come over for dinner. This way we can have one on one time!