Life Happens When You Least Expect It

I can’t believe how terrible I’ve been about blog entries lately. Apologies all around. One of the reasons I haven’t written is because everything that has been happening is deeply personal. While I want to share my experiences here, I needed to find a way to talk about everything, knowing it would end up as public domain!

As most of you already know, I’m in a relationship with a fellow volunteer. Dating someone in the States always requires a period of adjustment, when you learn to balance your friends, your work and the new person in your life. A relationship in Peace Corps tests your ability to do this even more, since there is minimal accountability for your work. Not spending every day in each other’s villages when there’s nothing to stop us from doing so is difficult. Knowing that we have a year of separation in front of us makes it all the more difficult to be apart as well. Fitting into each other’s lives is not like in the States, where we can get together for a drink after work or go catch a movie. Instead, we are two bush taxi rides away from each other, accessible only on our market days. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve slacked off since I’ve been back from Christmas, and it’s been hard motivating myself to do much since I’m getting so close to the end of my service. This is partly due to my boyfriend and partly due to the fact that I have large choices looming in front of me.

I was accepted into all the grad programs I applied to, and now am faced with a fantastic, albeit stressful, decision. I’m trying to get the most complete picture I can of all the programs, but I find it endlessly frustrating that I can’t pick up the phone and call the admissions offices or hop in the car and see the campuses. Thank goodness for Dad, my personal assistant in the States who has been making endless phone calls for me and for Frankie, who has been listening to me talk in circles, weighing the pros and cons of each program over and over again. On top of this decision, the Peace Corps has started sending us information about our Close of Service conference and what it’s like to be a returned Peace Corps volunteer in the States. People from my training group will be closing service as early as the end of May, and it’s staggering to think about how little time I have left.

So, that’s the frame of mind I’ve been in lately. In terms of Africa-y things, Vogan is good. The center is completely finished and we should be moving the furniture into the building in the next two weeks or so. We had a loooooooooong hold up during January and February due to our carpenter continuously hurting himself at other sites, but everything seems to be under control now. I’m in the process of filling out the final report, and if I see that there is interest from all of you back home who donated, I will be happy to post the final draft online. This past weekend, Frankie and I went to Accra for a couple days, which was really nice. It was fun to see Frankie’s reaction to things like the mall, overpasses, lanes on the road…all of the developed stuff that Togo doesn’t have. He hadn’t been out of Togo since he arrived in June, so he was very excited. We saw some of the historical stuff that I hadn’t seen on my past visits, so that was interesting. We also took in a movie at the new Cineplex, which, although not as educational, was great.

Well. I hope this entry serves to enlighten you all as to why I’ve been MIA lately, although I’m sure most of you already knew. I’m truly happy here as I reach the end of my service. My life seems to be falling into place and falling apart all at once, but I guess that’s the nature of closing service. I’ll write more as I see where the pieces end up.