Bring it On

That was a fast - two weeks?!? I've heard Peace Corps compared to a Roller Coaster so many times...but that's because it's the perfect analogy.  And now, with 88% (24 months/27 months) completed, I feel like I'm about to drop off that big final drop, carried along as the weeks whizz by on that momentum of medical clearance, COS (close-of-service) conference, final reports, wrapping up projects, etc. and it will be over before I know it, truly, the last sprint to the finish. 

That is a lot to take in.  After all the aspiration and anticipation for years before finally getting on a plane and being dropped into a completely new and unfamiliar territory, adjusting and struggling to make headway in my assigned work, meeting new people, making new friends and family, and finally feeling comfortable in that once unfamiliar vocation and location *phew*  Now, in a blink of an eye, all of that will be...over.

How do I feel?  People around me are starting to realize that I'll be gone soon, to which they generally ask, "Y tu, estas feliz?"  or "Am I happy?" to be returning home.  The short answer-of course I am!  I can't wait to see my friends and family, drive a car, flush a toilet, drink water from the tap, turn on a damn heater when it's cold outside.... But I'm sad too.  Sad at the end of an era, to live a block from the wonderful open air market with fresh fruits and vegetables, to hang out with my host mom, to head to xela to go thrift store shopping with my peace corps friends and commiserate on the quirks of Guatemalan life, the conversations in broken english with total strangers who are so pleased to run into an American girl in the middle of the Gutaemalan campo....

I can't believe I'm about to be catapulted back into the hurried, consumeristic US culture in a couple of short months-its enough to give a girl a slight panic attack. 

But I'm not gone yet.  That's important. So I'll try to drink it all in in the short time I have remaining.  Enjoy the people and places that surround me, and try not to worry about it too much.  That feeling rising in my chest as the unknown approaches yet again is a good thing-it signals a new adventure on the horizon. 




Bring it on