The Double R

My Peace Corps Service began when I arrived in West Africa in March 2011, and today I officially completed my Close-of-Service (COS) and am getting ready to head back to the United States of America as a Returned Peace Corps Response Volunteer (RPCRV).

Three stops, two plane changes, 9,500 miles (15,200 km)

Finishing with my Peace Corps service and leaving West Africa is bittersweet, but I'm also really looking forward to seeing family and friends back home. My paperwork is done, my flights are booked, my good-byes have been said, I'm mostly packed, and I feel ready to go.

Adieu, Peace Corps ~

And now I'm somewhat at a loss as how to wrap things up. I feel grateful to have so many wonderful and supportive people in my life, and could devote an entire blog to thanking everyone - relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues, drivers, host families, Volunteers, complete strangers - who has helped me out, mailed me things, fed me, given me gifts, sent me messages, kept me company, or wished me well. So many thank-yous.

For now, I'll just say that I hope you enjoyed the blog, and I wish you and your family good health, good luck, safe travels, and a very happy year. À la prochaine!

Weekend Update: Sunday

Here's a blog post that I wrote last summer but has been sitting around in my draft folder ever since:

On Saturday evening it started raining, and it rained all night long. By Sunday morning the thunder and lightning had subsided but it was still raining steadily and so laid around reading, took my time making breakfast, and then puttered around, watching TV and going through the newsletters and paperwork that Peace Corps sent out and wondering if it was just going to rain all day long.

It did stop raining by late morning, so I finally got dressed and sunscreened, picked up some tea and sugar, and headed over to visit Halimatou, a young woman who invited me over last week. I've seen her a few times, hanging out with the ladies who sit on the corner, selling roasted peanuts, fried plantain, fried fish, and shiny little packets of cookies. I stop by there pretty regularly to buy roasted peanuts, and occasionally some plantains, and a few of the women speak Pulaar. My Pulaar isn't that great, but Halimatou  was sufficiently impressed/entertained and so she pointed out her house and told me to come by on Sunday for lunch, so I did. I brought some tea and sugar with me, we hung out on the porch, chatting about this and that in Pulaar (and, when I was stumbling with my words, in French) and drinking sachets of extremely cold water and watching the little kids enthusiastically but inefficiently draw water from the family's well-maintained pump. Sarah, the other Response Volunteer in Kankan, came over too, and stayed for what turned out to be an extremely delicious lunch.

Me and Halimatou

They gave us a ridiculously large plate of steamed rice and a small vat of amazing peanut sauce - the kind that's rich and savory and full of vegetables and fried fish balls. The fish balls were the good kind, too, made from fresh fish pounded with peanut meal, onions, garlic and spices and, best of all, completely free of the wiry little bones that most people don't bother to pick out before pounding everything up. It was the best peanut sauce I've had since I arrived in Guinea, and I happily accepted an invitation to come back again next week.

Bienvenue en Guinée

My connecting flights all arrived and departed more or less on time (I would have been pretty thrilled to be stuck in Paris for a day or two, but c'est la vie, quoi) and I arrived in Conakry with all my luggage intact.

The airport experience was pretty much as I'd imagined it would be - it was crowded and sweltering, and several fancy ladies (intricately embroidered complet outfits, gold glitter in their elaborate hairdos) accompanied by a small crowd of children in little suits and frilly dresses were ushered to the front of the line, so it took awhile to get through customs. All my papers were in order and everyone was really nice - various gentleman bystanders and security ladies helped me get my heavy suitcase off the luggage belt and through the x-ray machine at the baggage ticket checkpoint (as you leave they verify that the bag-check stubs you got at check-in match the suitcases you're taking). It was fun to hear people speaking Pulaar again, too.

As I left the baggage claim area I was welcomed by Sean, a current Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV), and a Peace Corps driver, and we were off to the Conakry Peace Corps compound, which serves as an office and transit house. A group of current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) were hanging out and cooking dinner (chicken and vegetables and rice, delicious) and again, everyone was really nice, and overall quite happy to be in Guinea, which is heartening. The whole place feels very comfortable, the compound has a generator, air conditioning, a computer room, hot showers, and, much to my delight, the books in the living-room are arranged in rainbow-gradient order.

A Literary Spectrum

I slept well and woke up feeling pleasantly un-jetlagged and discovered that my Swiss Orange SIM card works here. Impressive. (They'll give me a Guinean SIM today or tomorrow, but it's nice to have a functional phone in the meantime.)

Now, in just a few minutes, I'll head over to the office to start getting oriented. So far so good.