After two
years of service in Madagascar
I am going home to the States, Texas
to be exact, for the first time since I left 27 months ago. I have extended my service with the Peace
Corps for another year and as such they are sending me home for a month of home
leave. It is still bitter sweet to say
the least. My extension will be in
Diego, the far north of the island, and so my service in Vondrozo and my
beloved region has come to an end.
The months
leading up to my departure were no different than what I had been experiencing
my whole service. The fact that I was
actually leaving did not really set in till just a few weeks before I left. I
finally had that feeling that I was about to leave a life behind that had spent
two years creating; my home, my friends, this beautiful place I lived,
everything that I grown to love about my site.
My last two weeks in Vondrozo were
spent in what seemed like a rush as I hastened to complete the many tasks I had
laid before me. The first week was spent
was spent all in goodbyes. In custom I
had to walk to the different offices of the lehibe (a person in position of power) in town to explain to them
that my service had come to an end and I had to leave. Coupled with this were the seemingly never
ending going away parties with people in community. Although most of these were spur of the
moment, as people saw me the street, I did have an official going away party
for the teachers and me at my school.
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Mayor |
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Some of the teachers at my going away party. |
The second week was much less fun
and was far more hectic. Though there
were still a few individual going away parties with a few of my friends, most
of my time was spent packing and cleaning out my house. Since I was not being replaced by a new
volunteer I had to close down my house.
This meant giving everything away that I was not taking with me. For weeks people had been asking me for a
“souvenir” and now had come the stressful time of deciding what to give each
person. For a few of my closest friends
I had already decided what I would give them but for everyone else I decided,
poorly I should state, to have an open house policy where people just came in
and took what they wanted. This turned
into a chaotic frenzy of people in my house.
My final day was spent in travel to
my banking town where I would start my transit to my new life. There is unfortunately no moving company where
I live so I had to maneuver my way through the different types of
transportation options I could find. First traveling in a cameon, then hiring a fleet of carts to carry my
things, and finally traveling in a brousse to Tana.
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