If Peace Corps service was a marathon, I would be in mile 24. I am a few days away from my second year anniversary in Romania and two months away from heading back to the United States.
Last month my Peace Corps group (Romania - group 27) had our close of service conference. Of our original group of 45 volunteers, we are down to 32. We received information about what we are responsible for in terms of documenting our service, tying up financial matters in Romania and medical check-out. We also were given advice about applying for jobs, healthcare stateside and warnings about reverse culture shock. It was an informative, if a bit stressful, conference.
Now I am back at my site to teach my last month and a half of classes. I told my friend Julie about my marathon running theory and she agreed, say, "Yeah, it's like mile 24 is really steep hill." Yesterday, I had dinner with two fellow volunteers, Julie and Brad, who are both in group 27. We talked a lot about how exhausted we are and ready to be done. For me personally, I am exhausted with the cheating and corruption that I witness and am unable to change. I believe this feeling is somewhat common for Peace Corps volunteers as our service is so individual; especially those of us serving alone in communities.
No comments:
Post a Comment