Just Set Me Free

Here I am again, and as I predicted more than 2 months have passed since my last post. During that time some monumental events have taken place in my Peace Corps world. The first of which is I had a visitor, my Aunt Linda. Secondly, I attended my Close of Service Conference or for some others in my group Continuation of Service, either way COS Conference.

From March 9 through 26, 2010, Linda and Ruth (Carol's mom) had a desire to see exotic Africa, so they came to visit us. For a long time now I've seen it as dusty, nothing really works and when it does it breaks Africa, so it was good to see Cameroon through fresh eyes. I guess you don't realize how much you adapt to living in a place until you're around someone who hasn't seen this stuff. So when someone points out the bugs in the train, the goats that are everywhere, and the babies getting mashed up against the back of their mothers while everyone storms into the train station, you just say, "yep, that's what they do". And you don't really know what else to say. All in all I think they both had a great time and did very well with the conditions they were given. At the particular time we were at my house the electricity and the water were cut for 3 or 4 days...so that was fun. But they survived and it was a lot of fun having them. I could tell you more about their trip but I really feel like Aunt Linda should write something up to tell you, because if I tell it, it's not going to have that fresh, new foreigner to Cameroon feel to it.

The COS Conference was a nice time. It was only the second time in my service when all the people I came in with in June 2008 were all together again. The hotel Peace Corps put us up in was pretty nice, although I imagine it was really nice about 5 or 10 years ago. We didn't have great swimming weather though, and that was a little disappointing because when was the last time I swam in a pool? The food at the hotel was pretty good, I'd say it might even be the best I've had in Cameroon. Although the breakfast was pretty weak, they need to step that up.

But it was a weird time, there are 35 people there and they all feel like family even though I haven't seen them since December 2008, and now is possibly one of the last times I will see them for years to come. I remember leaving home was pretty hard to do, but at least when I did that I knew that I'll see them when I get back. But this is different because you don't really know when you'll see them again. I guess the important thing is to not lose touch with them. One thing I've learned here is that being far away shouldn't be an obstacle in keeping up a friendship.

I'm at post now, waiting to finish up the school year, pack up my belongings, and make the trek home on June 4, 2010. America is on the horizon.