End Times. . .

The English faculty at my school. I'll miss them.

Students, the people in Benin I'll miss the most.

Adrien, naturally, the person in Benin I'll miss the most.

Once again I find myself in a situation where I’m facing a future full of unknowns. First I went to college, then grad school, then Peace Corps. This time it’s very different. This time I really have no idea what I’m going to end up doing with my life and this uncertainty is weighting very heavily.

One thing seems pretty certain is this: August 26th. My official close of service (COS) date. The date I will no longer be a Peace Corps Volunteer and will become unemployed.

Our COS conference was refreshing. Peace Corps put us up in a nice hotel right on the swamp in Cotonou. *** It was our last time together as a group. Two years ago we came here, in fresh new clothes, bright eyed, and ready to move mountains. Now, we have a lot to talk about. Having a COS date makes the end more certain and makes us all a little more nervous, at least those of us who don’t have a concrete plan.

After coming back to post I started catching a lot of “lasts.” I finished writing and editing my last round of exams for my school. I proctored my last exams, had what hope will be my last fight over English in Benin*, today I start to correct my last exams, and in the coming weeks I’ll teach my last classes, say goodbye to my students (my favorite people in Benin), and take girls to my last girls camp. In less than two months, I’ll have to say goodbye to village all together.

Time is going fast too, frighteningly fast. I have two more weeks of school. Then the camp in Parakou. After that, I have to make what will be my second to last trip to Cotonou for my exit medical exam. In July, I need to get really serious about planning my girls’ camp in village. I have the money, which came from the Kate Puzie Memorial fund,** and I’m ready to do it, it’s just been hard to motivate myself early because people don’t think very far in advance. Thus it’s hard to get commitments from various people.

I’ll try to write and post more over the coming weeks. It’s been especially hard for me, because my computer is broken. Before, I did most of my writing at post. Now I have to wait in line for a computer at a workstation, where there are usually people waiting to use it after me. As a result the quality of my blog has gone down a bit. With school finishing, I’ll have more time on weekdays to come into the city. We’ll see how things improve.

*Sometimes English teachers here get ridiculous ideas in their heads and there is nothing you can do to convince them otherwise. There was a small correction on the exam and I was going around and informing the students. This teacher, who was proctoring the exam, pulled me aside and told me to correct the question: “Who always celebrates Christmas on December 25th?” The problem, he says because Christians is plural, we should say “Who always celebrate Christmas on December 25th?” What? I knew he was 100% wrong, but I didn’t know why, so I had to look it up when I came home.

**The family Kate Puzey, the volunteer who was murdered, has started a fund to finance girls’ camps in Benin.

*** I found out the other day that cotonou means “Mouth of the river of death,” in Fon.