Adjustment

Mike put it best (with help from Nick, I think): it’s like your husband/wife just died and you’re being asked to sleep with somebody else…and they’re not even that hot!!

I haven’t properly mourned for Guinea. I don’t know that I can. And being shoved into this new relationship is in some ways even more trying than it was the first time. In other ways its not.

There are 11 of us who decided to transfer to Mali: me, Corinna, Mike, Marisa, Danielle, Paul, Erich, Mark, Scotty, Yik and Molly. Mark, Scotty, Yik and Molly are G18 and I didn’t even meet them until I arrived at Tubaniso after the evac (to be fair Yik was in my car between Kankan and Bamako, but he was wearing a crazy pink hair net and I couldn’t take him seriously).

Erich is a volunteer for a very finite amount of time from now (January, I believe) as he is G15 and deserves his COS. The other 6 of us are all from my stage, G17 (I am the sole AgFo to transfer here though I am proud to say ALL G17 AgFos did transfer – to places like Benin, Jamaica, Madagascar, Zambia and Senegal). G17 is hardcore. Out of the 4 stages in-country, I believe we were the one with the most transfers – we weren’t ready to give up, man. G15 understandably just COSed (their COS date was like Feb. 4). A lot of G16 (education) went home for 2 months and is going to start Liberia’s program in February (they get to keep their COS date which is a SWEET deal) – the others COSed. A surprisingly small number of G18ers opted to transfer (in their defense, they swore in like a week before we were evacuated). This includes the 4 who decided to stick it out with us in Mali. I believe most of the others are looking at re-enrollment, which basically means they go home, get placed again and start completely over.

So the last couple of days I have thought more and more about going back to get my dog. I know Mike and Marisa are thinking of going back for their dog and cat, too. I wouldn’t go get Yogi if I didn’t know for sure I could bring him back to the States, so I have to look that up. For the sole reason that I suspect he is probably happy in Santou and it is a vastly different world here and I don’t think I would want to leave him here.

Corinna warned me about how hard it would be to go back to Guinea but I want to and I think it would bring me some kind of closure so I would welcome it. If my mom or dad actually come through on their pledge to come visit me I would want to take them to Guinea, too. I spent nearly a year of my short (25 year) life there, and it is a place that will remain in my heart and memory until the day I die.