If you're a Peace Corps Volunteer, you definitely know that we have trainings and conferences all the time. We had Pre-Service Training, In-Service Training, Food Security Training, Program Design Training, Mid-Service Training, and so on. This is a chance for volunteers to gather in the same place again and catch up with the staff too.
Unfortunately, our last conference ever came and went very quickly. It's called Close of Service (COS) conference. When we first entered the year 2019, we started to have an awareness that we would be leaving Cambodia this year. However, the mixed emotions did not hit us until COS Conference. We met with some friends for the last time who are leaving in the following weeks. Most of the senior staff made really touching speeches for us. We volunteers even got to write messages in little notebooks for each other. Peace Corps also treated us with a boat cruise and reserved us rooms in a really nice hotel. Most of us stayed through the weekend. The goodbyes were hard, teary, and hopeful (to meet again in the future). Once we arrived back to our villages, we started to have this very clear awareness of how close we are to closing our service. Even my villagers ask me how many days I have left (almost every day!). They're counting down as hard as we are. What are we counting to? To go back to the US? To meet our families back home? To travel the world? To go to grad school? To find that new job you've been hoping for? Well, for me, I'm counting down to the emotional time where I'd have to say goodbye to all my beloved host family, neighbors, students, coworkers, and other villagers I know. It's definitely not an easy feeling. I'm so happy to get to know them, sorry that I can't stay longer, and sad that we won't get to see each other often anymore. Another thing I started to realize lately was that my closest Peace Corps friends has also become my family in the past 2 years. Being so far away from our families in the US, all we have is each other to celebrate the holidays (especially major US ones like Thanksgiving and Christmas). We've spent many weekends together and gone on many trips with each other. We've witnessed each other's ups and downs, successes and failures, and happiness and sadness too. Saying goodbye to them also means that having to separate from this new family we found. Once we all go back to America, we'd all be in different states so it'd be too hard to see each other as often as we do now. But what can we do? This is life. All I can do is be happy that I was able to receive such love, care, kindness, and support from everyone all this time. Here's to the last 2 months of service! Cheers <3
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Christine can be reached at [email protected].
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