Home Stretch

>> We're in the home stretch. We just got back from Freetown for a nice get-together with our country directors, and this next week is our LAST in training. On Tuesday, I have my official advising meeting with the top people of the staff in which they will talk to me about my training, about my strengths and weaknesses and ultimately if they believe I should swear-in as a volunteer or consider going home. If I pass their judgment, I will swear in as United States Peace Corps volunteer on Friday, August 13th. I'll be off to Gbendembu on Saturday, August 14th, and then have some weeks in town to relax and settle in. What happens next is a little hazy. I'm going to be teaching SS1 (9th grade-ish) Biology (and maybe Chemistry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Statistics, Physics,....) but SS1 students don't come back to school until November (because they're waiting on exam results) so I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing until November? I'll be getting an answer to this question soon, trust me. But, that aside, I honestly have mixed feelings about the end of training. I've made some superb friendships here, albeit two of my best friends have early-terminated and gone home already (apparently I'm not a good friend), and I don't know how I feel about being so far away from them. But. I need to understand that it's happening to everyone and not just me- that we have cell phones- and that I've been alone and living on my own before (it's just that I could always get Dos Reales take-out if I was feeling really down....) so here's to you, my friends. We've gotten past the first BIG hurdle, and now it's onto the actual MEAT and POTATOES (rice and sauce) of my Peace Corps experience. A strange village. A strange language. No friends. Alone. No one to get water for me. No one to cook for me. No one to clean dishes for me. Ready, independence. Ready, United States Peace Corps Volunteer. Go.