Time Just Keeps Moving Along

I came in this week to take care of some financial business. I had forgotten that the CYE/MCD/CHA Volunteers are closing their service this week, so everything has been hectic. The usual forms to sign, people to see, final reporting, etc. In short, all the fun you could ever imagine with paper-trail bureaucracy. They've been at the computers like LCD-addicted mice, and their stress is palpable and contagious. I realized pretty soon that it's only about 3 1/2 months until I'm going through the same thing. Just a little more than 15 weeks to go.

Like I've said in other posts, I'm not happy that I'm leaving. If I had the option, I would probably stay in village because I don't feel as if my work is done yet. But, you have to move on sometime, so it is what it is. I had to sit down with a calendar to chart how my work will be affected over the next few months, and what I discovered is that I have very little time left. Between trainings and work in Niamey, my time is limited to less than nine weeks at post. It's also pretty chilling to realize that with all the work of closing and reporting service, once the new kids are testing out their new sites in the week-long live-in, I'll be packing up my house and probably losing my mind. It's hard to leave any place you've lived for a number of years. But when that place is so outside your perceived normal life, and when your neighbors are the warmest (literally and figuratively), kindest people you've ever had, the transition, I think, is even harder.

My work will necessarily have to start winding down. It's Ramadan now, which means it's impossible for most of the villagers to do anything. You'd be surprised how little energy you have when you don't eat or drink all day in a landscape like this. Or maybe you wouldn't. It's not very hard to imagine, but I can assure you, it's worse when you actually experience the fast. I fasted fully for two days, but because of farming and work, I'm down to an unhealthy weight already, so I'm done now. I felt like my heart was going to just give up if I didn't eat and drink. Plus, while the villagers don't have to work, my projects are at a kind of critical stage where I have to start transitioning them to the village. (I guess I don't have to work either, but sitting around thinking about how I'd like to drink some water is not why I came to Peace Corps.)

I wish I could say more at the moment. It's been a tough, anxiety-filled week for a lot of people here, and I think I've picked up a lot of that. I need to be back in village so I can begin sorting through my next few months and hopefully organize it into something productive. It seems spending so much time in village has made me useless in normal, Western situations. I can only really ever organize myself when I'm alone and at post, and I don't want to even touch on my eating or sleeping habits. (Let's just say I doubt I'll be too productive at home sleeping 12 hours a day.)

Well, that's really all for now. I usually post some stuff from my journal, but I didn't bring it along this time. I might try to do another post before I leave for post tomorrow. Kala Tonton