New Faces, New Places

A school mural in Ituni

The weeks are zooming by, almost too quickly. 2.5 weeks left as a PCV, then after that we get a new acronym: RPCV or Return Peace Corps Volunteers!

Last week was, as Chelsea says, a trip and a half. On Wednesday, three Guy 24 trainees came to Linden on their site visit to check out where they will be living for the next two years. It is exciting that PC sent 3 new volunteers to our site! The three are going to be living in our house and one is even assigned to Chelsea’s health center. The other two girls are based out of the hospital and continuing education school. It was a proper reality check as we escorted the “newbies” (as we lovingly call them) around our community. We introduced them to our community of friends, leaders, co-workers and other movers and shakers who have been instrumental in our service here. Every conversation with a community member went something like this:

Us: “These are the new Volunteers who are going to be working in Linden for the next two years, they are excited to work with you and have lots of new ideas and skills that they bring to the table.”

Community: “Welcome to Guyana, we hope you enjoy your time here.” Then they’d turn to me or Chelsea and say, “So you are leaving us just now, right? That is so sad. We are sorry to see you go. We will miss you. You have done so much here.”

It was nice to hear that we are loved and will be missed, but each conversation was an inescapable reminder of our eminent departure. We can't hide from the reality. We're really leaving Guyana. Blows my mind and makes me nervous and anxious, but ridiculously excited.  Anyway, we want to welcome the new (soon to be) volunteers! Ren, Loren and Wendy, we hope you will have an amazing experience in Linden, as we did.

Last week was an action packed week, especially since we visited our dear friend Mark in his community down the road. He lives in a semi-remote village about an hour outside of Linden and, although Mark visits us often on his way through Linden, we had never managed to visit him at his house. We had promised to for a long time and this was one of the last weekends that we could realistically do it. So we left the newbies to their own devices for a day and headed down the road for a quick trip to see Mark. It was a lovely ride through dusty, sandy roads and jungle. We walked around his village, cooked a tasty meal, explored his garden and the wildlife in his yard (bugs, cats, kittens and yummy veggies) and then headed back to Linden the next morning on the early (and only) bus. Upon arriving home, we said ‘farewell for now’ to the newbies (they will be back on the 30^th for a day of transition with us before we leave Linden to spend the last few days in Guyana in Georgetown), then, started the business of packing up our house!

Ituni

We took everything down from the walls and began packing a box of memories and things we want to ship back to America and can’t keep with us on our backpacking trip. It is weird to look around at the empty walls and bookshelves. In general, this is a really emotional time for us. We are experiencing periods of elation at the adventures that lie ahead and beautiful moments with friends in the here and now, but those are mixed with teary eyed feelings of pending separation and anxiety. 

I was talking to my mom yesterday on Skype and I realized that I could look back upon and specifically pin-point experiences that have shaped me into whom I am today. These epic things, and some not so epic, like enjoying camping and the outdoors for the first time when I was 17, traveling Europe after high school, studying in England, teaching, and oh so many little mistakes have all been learning experiences for me. Right now it seems too momentous to fathom, so I can only imagine what sort of lessons and defining moments Chelsea and I have shared during our Peace Corps service that will shape the rest of our future. But I look forward to looking back on them!

Walking the streets.