Reflections and Future Plans

“You’re nearing the end of your service now.  How does it feel?”  This is the question I’ve been hearing a lot lately.  My response is usually something like, “No I’m not!   I still have a long time to go!”  But in reality, they’re right.  It’s 2015 now.  This is the year that I will COS (close of service).  When I allow myself to think about the fact that I will have to leave my life here in just a few months (okay, 7 months, but in Peace Corps, that’s not a lot of time!) I have very mixed feelings.  First, I think Oh crap!  What have I been doing this whole time?  Now it’s almost time to leave… have I done anything worthwhile during my service?  Better start working hard now and make every minute count! 

Then I look back on the last year and a half and realize that maybe I have done something with my time here.  I am really proud of the GAD (Gender and Development) work I have done here.  Rachel and I put on an event for some of our female students for International Women’s Day—March 8—last year and are planning to do it again this year—in less than a month!  We organized another similar event for grade 10 students at 6 different schools in November.  And we helped put on an amazing week-long program last month:  Camp GLOW.  The two womens groups in my village finally have gotten going on the trainings they have wanted to do for so long:  small business, group management, and soap making, with tie-dye in the works for the future!  I’ve worked with some really great teachers at my school, despite certain challenges.  I have gotten to know a lot of amazing people, have had a lot of laughs, confused moments, good food, bad food, cries, many adventures, and even found the love of my life, Abdou, who is planning on coming to America with me, as long as his visa process goes as we hope.

Okay, so what am I going to do with the remainder of my service in The Gambia?  I actually have a lot planned.  I just returned to village from a training on malaria and my counterpart (Mr. Kandeh, a teacher at my school) and I are planning on doing a Grassroots Soccer program—a way to teach students about malaria through sports and games, in particular with footballs!  I can’t wait!  Should be fun and educational.  I also really want to put on a girls football tournament for the schools in the area to promote girls in sports and to have a lot of fun with all the wonderful girls here.  Most girls here have the burden of housework in addition to going to school and rarely get the chance to play at the field.  This time the girls will be playing and the boys on the sidelines cheering them on.  Other things I will be doing:  literacy bike trek—going to 4 schools teaching teachers about how to effectively read aloud in class; mural painting at my school—I want to do the world map, a map of the gambia, the alphabet with pictures, and other educational things; and other supportive work at school with my teachers—observations, trainings, anything that comes up.

Whew!  Lately it’s been hard to stop and catch my breath!  All this activity has kept me moving from place to place for the last few months.  Most of my traveling is done now and I will now dedicate as much of the rest of my time here to my village as possible.

Oh, one more thing.  Abdou and I want to have a traditional wedding here in the Gambia sometime before I COS.  We don’t know when it will be yet, but I do know that it will be very entertaining (probably more for the people watching me than for myself, but who knows).  It will be in his village, Kudang, and will be hosted by his family there.  Then when we are in America we will have some sort of American wedding there too.  Everything is uncertain as of now because we are at the mercy of those who give out visas…  Ideally Abdou will return with me to the states in September and we will have to legally marry within 90 days of his entry, as required by the visa we are applying for.  Whether we do a ceremony at that time or later is still up in the air.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who has continually supported me for the past year and a half through kind messages, comments, care packages, monetary donations, phone calls, letters, prayers, thoughts, and everything else.  Thanks mom especially for going above and beyond especially in the care package department.  You rock and have continually provided the chocolate I need to stay motivated and alive.  One day I will make it all up to you and more!

Lots of love and hugs from West Africa,

Stephanie