Sunset

The sun will set soon, mostly because the sun sets at the same time every day, about seven o'clock. We've been here less than two weeks but to me and to most of the people I've talked to it feels like two months.

There was so much packed into the first week of training, not to mention getting to know each other at staging, that we sort of have this artificial deepness to our relationships. We are still in the honeymoon phase of our Peace Corps service, but because we are the only other Americans we know, we are forced to depend on each other.

In the last few days we were separated into language/region groups, and it was pretty exciting. Our lead teacher trainer did a Harry Potter sorting hat thing, and we got sorted into regions. Everyone cheered when people got sorted, and we started talking about things we wanted for our houses at our sites. But when everyone was sorted, there was a deflating feeling.

We had been living all together for only a week, listening to multiple presentations about our responsibilities as volunteers, medical information, technology/phone information, transportation information, and the beginnings of teacher/education information. We had meals together, lamented the lack of hot water and varying availability of electricity together, and taken very long bus rides together. But it still had only been a week.

Now that we are separated into groups, it's obvious that some people will be around a lot less often, and the group dynamics are shifting. I'm placed in the far North of the country, which is a long bus ride down to any of the other Volunteers. People in the far Southwest have the same problem. Traveling long distances is expensive and tiring and puts you on your guard much more than normal.

And so in our minds we've begun to say goodbye to people, knowing that the last time we'll all be together after this training centre is our swearing in ceremony at the end of January.

I had a lot of notions about service before I came, but I think the one I didn't even think about was the idea that I'd have to say goodbye so early. One of our Volunteers had to go home for good today for family reasons. Our lead teacher trainer told us that no matter the group, Education or otherwise, there are always Volunteers who ET, or early terminate. It feels strange, knowing that we can say goodbye at anytime, especially because there is no chance to say it in person. Sometimes people just leave, for personal reasons, family reasons, medical reasons, basically just life reasons. And here there is no stigma, because life just happens.

I suppose the whole point of this is that I never expected to get close to people this fast, and I expect I will have the same experience when I arrive at my permanent site in January.

I know that some talk about site placement/training/scheduling is confusing and I haven't explained it fully, but that will be next time. Right now I just wanted to get this down to remember later.