The Beginning of the End

22 months ago I stepped on a plane heading to benin, west africa. boy did i not have a clue as to what I was getting myself into. all i knew was that i was to be a rural community health advior living two years in a small west african village. images of mud huts (mine, not theirs) filled my head. i pictured people eager for help, waiting only for someone to share their knowlege. and through it all not once did i consider how difficult communication would be. how naive i was. i am reflecting on this now (and probably will many times before I leave) because this past week all of the volunteers came into country with (35 out of the 59 we started with) were pulled together for a 3 day confrence in Ouidah. With a beautiful ocean backdrop for the confrence we relaxed either poolside or on the beach after day long sessions convering topics such as resumes, power statements, readjusting to the states and basically life after peace corps. This was the last time we were all together. Slowly one by one we will begin leaving to start our new projects, our new lives lives outside of Peace Corps, or should I say outside of Peace Corps Benin at least. Next week the first of our group will leave. 2 volunteers got picked to go do Peace Corps China, teaching english at universities and so they must leave next week so that they can have their 30 days of home leave (PC pays for volunteers to go home for 30 days if they decide to continue on with PC for another year). A lot will be leaving the end of June and after that we are all kind of sprinkled throughout July, August and Septemeber.

It has been a great time seeing everyone, but tinged with sadness as well. Saying goodbye is never easy especially considering all that we've been through together. I find myself looking around the room sometimes wondering who will I keep in contact with, who will move from being a Peace corps friend to being a real world friend. I would like to think they all will be but I am more realisitic than that.

So we started out with 15 health volunteers, but are only leaving with 7. Here we all are at our Close of Service Confrence in Ouidah. I made us all matching shirts.

Here's a close up the shirt. On front it says, "We Came, We Saw..." and on back it says "We stayed" and is followed by a map of Benin with all of our names and posts listed.

It has become tradition with the health sector to wear meme tissue (same fabric) to the close of confrence ceremony. meme tissue is used in this culture often as a sign of family and save for special events.

Our night were free to do with as we pleased, however we were pretty far from town so we stayed at our hotel for the most part. One night some of the volunteers decided to have a talent show/skit night. Well not many people were prepared so I was a filler telling a short story about the night I recieved my breakfast at 2 am by my host mama.

Here I am with a couple volunteers.

Ouidah in the Morning

Ouidah in the evening