May 13, 2012
So last week was our Close of Service Conference. A few days before that, me and some other PCV’s went to the beach for a couple days to relax before the conference. We had a great time just hanging out and talking about what we’re doing after service and how we’re feeling now that we’re so close to the end.
At COS, after some very long and scary deliberations (we were left to decide all on our own…there are 70 of us), we all decided our COS dates… and I will be flying out of Ghana on the 18th of July…yippee!!!! Nivole is leaving the week before and Chris is flying out the same day as me…but on a different flight L It was so strange at the conference; normally we can’t wait to get out of those things, but this time at the end, when we were done thanking our awesome training staff, no one wanted to leave. We all (70 of us) just kept sitting there because we didn’t want to walk out the door because that meant it was over. This would be our last PC conference and the last time we would all be together…it was sad and really overwhelming to see that we were all feeling the same thing…there were more than a few pairs of misty eyes in the room…but sucking it up like true PCV’s we had a heck of a last night together!
After the conference I went to Accra where Daisy and I were working on a digital memory book for our group. It’s gonna be awesome if we ever get it done. We made up questionnaires that we had the PCV’s answer at the conference and now we are in the process of taking pictures from everyone’s facebook pages. Once we get it finished, it will be available online to view, but can also be ordered as a coffee-table book…I’m really excited about this.
Now I’m back in the village for a few days. During COS I got all sentimental and was really looking forward to coming back to site, but now that I’m here, I’m just bored again. I’m trying to hold a couple meetings this week before I leave again on Wednesday. I don’t really have any reason to be spending time in the village and I got a ton of paperwork from Peace Corps to do. I’m still sewing the market bags for my women’s and batik group…I think I have 4 left to sew…I’m tired of sewing the same thing…it’s boring.
Next week I head up to Kumasi to help with STARS (camp for highschool kids all over Ghana, that PCV’s put on). Before STARS, I’m gonna go up to a monastery you can stay at and hike in the rocks…a lot of people really like it, but I’ve never been. After STARS I’m gonna venture up to the Upper West for a few days since that’s the only region of Ghana I haven’t been in. Then back to the village for a month or so and then on to America to see you fine people!!!
Mixed feelings about all this, but that’s to be expected I guess. I think I’m gonna take the GRE in August and then apply for some Grad schools and PC fellowships. There’s all kinds of stuff in the works: school, epic Northwest road trip, Austin trip, Katie’s wedding…and that’s just through December J
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