And...I'm off!

This is my last blog entry, I am now officially a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer as of March 20^th, 2013. It's been an incredible journey, full of the expected ups and downs, some months more downs than ups. I can’t describe the feeling of saying goodbye to people that have become like family the last two years here. The going away party thrown by my center was so fun. There were lots of traditional singing, dancing and speeches made. You know it’s an important event when there is macaroni. Namibians for some reason love putting LOTS of mayo and ketchup with their macaroni. I know I have lived here for so long when I not only think this is delicious (carbs!), but that it is fancy. The macaroni combined with lots of cold soda made me feel like a big deal. To compliment the pasta was a smorgasbord board of meat; barbecued chicken gizzard, goat head, chicken feet, goat intestines and all the normal parts of an animal as well.

I realize that I am not only saying goodbye to wonderful people that welcomed me into their community but also to the lifestyle here. It is easier to describe the feeling of leaving my hut life rather than the people, that will be something I process for months to come. I am saying goodbye for it ever to be appropriate to dig a hole behind my hut and call it my bathroom. I am saying goodbye to all the interesting insects that build nests and come in through weird holes in my wall, goodbye to the mentality that every drop of water should be used efficiently, saying goodbye to my leaky thatch roof, the sound of roosters and goats every morning and my taco bed that I hate more than anything else.

Overall I say I am leaving just in time though, as my hut is sort of falling apart with the latest storm. I saw the biggest mamba snake I have seen yet slither out from under my bed last week and found the secret hole it came through. Plus I woke up to puddles on my floor this week due to the heavy rain. Time to go!

I want to thank you for sharing this experience with me, it was extremely therapeutic for me to write my emotions on here knowing that my friends and family were reading it back in RI and wherever. Tomorrow I fly off to Thailand, where I take a crazy five week trip with three best friends. I will see you all in May though!! Looking forward to some cheerios and cold milk every.single.morning!

the morning I left Kayanga