time to go...

Tomorrow (11 January 2008) marks exactly two years and two months
since I first arrived in Namibia with Peace Corps. It's time to go.

Almost everything is finished.

At the TRC, I am working on the details for next week's "First Days
of School" workshop focusing on classroom management and promoting
the use of the book with the same title. The Namibians that I have
shared it with have found it incredibly useful and easy to follow. I
wrote to the publisher and they donated ten copies which I gave to
schools and the two TRCs in this region. I'm looking forward to
sharing these ideas with the teachers in Mariental to help them to
have a successful start to the school year! It will be a nice
culmination to all of the work that I have done in the schools with
Heidie and at the TRC as well.

For Peace Corps, I have completed all of the reports, forms, and
medical exams. I have two exit interviews left and then I'm
officially an RPCV (returned Peace Corps Volunteer). These will be
done in my last days in Windhoek (23-25 January) before flying out on
the 26th!

My Peace Corps Volunteer experience will all be over before I know
it! In the beginning it seemed like two years would be a long time,
but now it seems to have passed quickly. Colleagues at the office,
teachers and people I see in town have been asking when I am leaving,
knowing that it is soon. It makes me sad. As a volunteer you put in
so much effort into integrating into your community and then it
becomes your home and the people know you. Then before you know it
you have to say goodbye to those neighbors who have been so sweet to
you, to the check-out ladies at the grocery store who greet you by
name, to the colleagues you have worked closely with for two years,
and the most difficult -- the dear friends that you have made here,
the people you have not only grown to know but love as your own
family and friends. The worst thing ever for me is leaving and
having to say goodbye. I remember how hard it was when I left
Wisconsin, left my parents standing at the security check point in
the Wausau Airport. Now, I am in a similar place, emotionally, but
the difference is that I don't know when I will see these people
again. However, something similar about leaving the US for Namibia
and leaving Namibia for the US is that I know it is time to go and
that new and exciting challenges await down the path!

Yes, it is time to go.