At the time of the bombing and evacuation, I was on vacation back in Ohio and due to a weird loophole in the system, got screwed out of many of the options available to my fellow volunteers. As of the moment of the evacuation, my paperwork was started without my authorization to end my peace corps service and I officially became a Retired Peace Corps Volunteer. While I was at home sobbing over the loss of my work, family, and friends in Mauritania and the lack of closure, my friends who had evacuated to Senegal together were able to share a final week together and decide whether or not they wanted to finish out their service in one of many francophone African countries (ie. Rwanda, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, and Guinea). For me, it was over.
It has been an extremely rough time knowing that they will be continuing on their adventures while I am thrown into the post-grad real world in America. Don't get me wrong, America is great, but I had planned to use the last year of my service as a time to decide what I wanted to do with my life. Suddenly I've been thrown back into a world of 14 year olds; I don't have a car and I have to live with and mooch off of my parents. But things are starting to look up, between the loads of PC paperwork and job searching I'm keeping really busy and hoping for the best. Thanks to all my amazing friends and family for being supportive through the rough times and always knowing how to make me smile on days when I thought I would never be able to make it. If I had the chance to do it all over again I would; I came home with no regrets. I made friends that will last a lifetime, became part of an African family that will forever be a part of me and hopefully touched the lives of my center girls the same way they touched my life.
Thanks again for everything!
Peace Corps RIM: June 21, 2008-August 10, 2009
1 comment:
Teresa, you are awesome.
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