Last Night At Shimoni

Tonight is our last night at Shimoni. Tomorrow morning we go off to our separate schools to visit for a few days, meet the administrators, see the town, see our future housing, and just generally get to know the area. After that, we go to our satellite locations and meet and stay with our host families.

We've only known each other for a month, and now we are all spending a month apart. We will still see our language groups every day for language/culture training, but the whole group will be split up all over the country.

As I mentioned earlier, it feels like we are perpetually saying goodbye. First it was to America, then to some volunteers who had to ET, now it is saying goodbye to living as an entire group. The truth is that we have not been having a Peace Corps experience, but a Peace Corps training experience. True Peace Corps is adapting to situations on your own or perhaps with one or two other people, not knowing the language and not being able to express yourself as much as you want to, and being frustrated when things don't work out the way you are expecting.

I've enjoyed training so far, even if at times it's been hectic. Learning how to teach in Uganda, bonding with my fellow teachers, and learning a new language and culture while supporting each other has been a valuable experience. But it's been comfortable. Even with pit latrines and unfamiliar foods, it's been comfortable. Leaving each other will be uncomfortable.

I remember getting here and being super stressed about it, and now everything feels fine again. And we are going to do the same thing again, be super stressed about homestay and more training, but it will probably be fine. A series of events taking us out of our comfort zones further and further.

I'm not really sure where I was going with this other than I wanted to document how I was feeling tonight to be able to look back. The country is beautiful, the sun sets in about five minutes and at exactly the same time every day, and tomorrow I leave behind most of my group. To any in my group reading this, I've had a really good time. I hope to travel to all of your regions at some point. Let's rock our service.