My last few days were spent in the Maseru Sun hotel for a 'Close of Service Conference'. All members of the group of volunteers I came to Lesotho with gathered to reminisce on our last two years and prepare for our re-entries into America. We should all be going back in early December. Some have said they're off to graduate school while others will find new work. Abruptly, on the first morning of the conference, in front of the group, I received my official acceptance to extend my stay another year, and so became the oddball. Everyone but me would be going home for good in December.
I immediately started feeling less a part of my group just because I would be staying as they are all leaving. Their minds were all on their return to America while mine was still heavily in Lesotho. I only partly tuned in to the sessions on getting work in international development, bumps in the road of readjusting to American culture, healthcare options offered by Peace Corps. It all became premature if not totally irrelevant.
Nevertheless, I was grateful to be with my group for this gathering. The times we were asked to recollect good, tough and strange times here in Lesotho were hilarious and touching and appropriately done in the company of these people. You get to know the members of your own particular group of volunteers very well, and there's a connection formed with them that you'll never have with other Peace Corps volunteers anywhere, let alone non-volunteers. There are inside jokes and reputations and gossip and respect within the group that is unique and generated over two years of learning how to live in a new place together.
So I'm sad they're all leaving. I expect I may not hang out with other volunteers much next year now that they won't be around. But I'm in no way sad that I'll be staying. I'm glad that it's now official and so I can plan accordingly. In fact, I've already requested to come home for a visit on December 7th. Peace Corps allows me to visit home for a month before I begin my third year. So I'll be returning to Lesotho only in early January for one more school year.
And I'm grateful I'll be able to come home for a month because of course I want to visit everyone, but also because man, my English needs your help. I read something I wrote before I came to Lesotho and it impressed me. This doesn't mean my English was once excellent, but that now it is decidedly unexcellent. Decidedly unexcellent? You see what I'm saying? My job here is to teach English but I'm losing it. I look forward to being around it all the time again for a while to whip it back into shape so I can then teach it better.