Thursday, October 16, 2014
I haven’t posted a blog in a while – that isn’t to say that
I haven’t written any, just that I haven’t posted any. This saga with my tooth went on so long that
honestly, the last blog I wrote shouldn’t see the light of day; it was a bit…
incendiary. Inappropriate at least. Plus let’s be honest, I was as tired of
writing about that tooth as anyone still looking at this blog was of reading
it.
About a month ago a solution was finally reached. I was sent to Denver, where I’m from, to get
the tooth extracted and an implant put in.
I was a bit surprised – the people in DC told me that I would be going
for treatment to South Africa. I’m not
sure what happened but I’m assuming it had gone on so long (more than five
months) that they decided to just let me go home. Not going to lie – South Africa would have
been awesome, I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get to go there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, but
I’ll be going home in a month and a half for home leave anyways.
Regardless, home was great.
I saw a lot of friends and family, watched football and hockey, played
with my dog, ate great food, drank great drinks (it’s Colorado, home of the
best beer in the world), and relaxed on the couch. Everyone always thinks that I want to go do crazy
things when I’m home, but really I just want to relax, eat, drink, and see
people. It’s the little things that I
miss when I’m in Cameroon– being able to drink water from the tap (with ice!),
sitting on comfortable furniture, getting my own seat in a car (or even
driving), and using a microwave. Of
course, getting to go to the Great American Beer Festival was pretty
awesome. If you don’t know what that is,
look it up and be jealous.
Last night was my fourth time flying into Cameroon – when I
first got here, xmas last year, Morocco, and now for my tooth. Other than the first time, this was the
weirdest. Since I’ve been gone, another couple
of my closest friends left. I should get
used to it – all of my staj (training group) will be gone by November 7th. I know I made the right decision to stay in
Cameroon; my position working with M&E is exactly the job experience I want. Plus I just wasn’t done living here; I would
have already been gone for a couple of months by now. I like Cameroon. Coming back now though it seems like I
underestimated how difficult it will be.
Over the last ten years I’ve been lucky to find myself in
situations with groups of people where we are all out of our comfort zones and
go through everything together. From
college to Teach for America to grad school and now the Peace Corps I’ve met
some amazing people that, partly because of our shared experiences, I am
incredibly close with. Even more than
TFA, Peace Corps has probably been the most intense of these experiences.
I think the work in TFA was more difficult, but the thing
about Peace Corps is that you never leave work.
You are always viewed as an outsider and live life in a fishbowl; the
hard part about Peace Corps isn’t the work that you do, but everything else
that goes along with it. Not only that but
unless you’ve done something like it, you won’t get it. Even the people here that I don’t like I’ve
got a shared experience with, something that will always keep us
connected. Within a couple of weeks
there will only be a handful of people left in country that I’m really close
to. I don’t know how I’ll get through
the next year like this without so many of my people. It’s been a great two years and I’ve met some
of the strongest, smartest, and most fun people I ever will. You guys will be sorely missed.
