So yes, I am moving. As for some background for my fellow Americans, when you sign on to Peace Corps, you commit to spending 24 months in a village assigned to you to work, integrate and learn about the community. On some rare (but seemingly more common) occasions, volunteers cannot complete their service in the village they were originally assigned. This is my case.
The background is that after 14 months in my village (16 in Morocco) some issues have started to arise. The gist is that what my village expects for development does not mash up with what myself or Peace Corps can provide. After a meeting with my new regional manager, my local counterpart and myself, we came to some realizations about my job and my service and after a lot of self-reflection and advice consulting, I decided it was better for me and my community if I tried my hand at a new place.
Luckily, Sarah-Kate, my fellow volunteer friend and stage mate had an opening at her site and welcomed me in. Her cooperation has been imperative in making this process as smooth as possible. Sarah-Kate used to have a site-mate, Megan, but she closed her service in May and the town had room for an extra volunteer. Lucky for me!
Now I have spent the better part of the last year learning about my community and forming friendships. I am sad to leave but happy to go, if that makes any sense at all. My community has been extremely welcoming, hospitable and wonderful to me. I am grateful to them for that and I feel lucky that I got to spent the last year as a part of them. My parting is not personal in any way, it's strictly business. I have found that my lack of ability to meet my community's development goals has caused some underlying tension that I can feel. It can make some encounters uncomfortable and would make the last 10 months of my service difficult, to say the least. I don't want to go and I especially don't want to leave the people I have grown so close with, but frankly, I just can't see myself being successful here and feeling good in the last months of my service. I plan on coming back to visit for major town events and I hope my community doesn't take the transition poorly and frankly, I doubt they will. I think things are going to go well.
As for my new home, as I already said, there is a health volunteer living there now who has done great work so far. I am excited for the prospect to collaborate with her on her projects as well as a few of my own. Sarah-Kate and myself found an amazing home in town as well. No more walking up a mountain to get vegetables, trash burning next to my house or people knocking on my door at all hours of the day. No more long weeks without seeing other Americans and wasted food from cooking too much. English speaking will happen every day!
The house is brand spanking new. I am REALLY excited to move in. In addition to not having to hike to get to market, it also has running water and internet, yes INTERNET. I am going to get to join the 20th/ 21st century and actually use the internet more than once a week. This means I will be expecting more Skype/ Google chat dates, more emails and overall, more interaction with the outside world! This is going to be great.
Now moving is not all fun and games, there will be some challenges, mostly having to integrate and learn about a whole new community of people. Community trust and involvement is key to success as a volunteer so in a way, I will be starting over again, with the help of Sarah-Kate of course.
Overall, I am excited, extremely excited. It will be a new start, a new chance for success and a new luxurious way of life for the last 10 months of my service, I think it's going to be good, real good.
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