Finished

I'm sitting in the Peace Corps Lounge now, waiting to get the last of my forms signed so that I can stick the R (for Returned) on the front of my PCV title. In a few hours I'll be on a plane to Greece.



Everything got wrapped up nicely at my site. It was hectic, but everything that needed to get done got done. Here in Dar I was able to attend the site announcements for the new training class, so I got to talk to my replacement for an hour or so, which was a nice opportunity.



I really can't believe the time is up, I've gotten very accustomed to life here, and I think being back in America will be strange. Most RPCVs say that readjusting to America is more difficult than adjusting to life in the country of service.



I especially want to thank those of you who helped with my project at Itundu Primary School. They were rushed to finish everything before I left, but they came through and got it all completed. I'm trying to upload some photos to accompany this blog entry of the construction process and completed houses, but even here the Internet is slow. Before renovations, the houses were awful, you can find "before" pictures here, during and after scattered through this post. Now the houses are in about the same condition as the house I've been living in for the past 2 years, which is to say pretty nice, and excellent for the area we're in. One of the teachers said that he used to be keeping his eyes open for other work that might come along, but with such a nice house he's now content to continue teaching.




The teachers (and whole community) are absolutely thrilled with the houses. Walking around the village I was being thanked constantly. They threw me a lovely going-away party and repeatedly entreated me to pass along many many greetings and thanks to everyone who supported the project. Tunashukuru sana (we are very thankful).

Election Part 2

And he won. McCain resigned just after 7:00 am here. During the night we made a victory cake--I'll post some pictures on Tuesday or Wednesday. At 7:30 I got on a bus and came to Njombe. There's a Kenyan Obama song that was playing on all the radio stations, and everyone was talking about it. I've never been so proud to be American.

Lots of people here were aware of Obama. A pretty common opinion was that it was almost like a joke, that he could never win. I've had conversations now with several people where they said something along the lines of "America has shown us that true democracy is possible." I think that this election has done more for spreading Freedom and Democracy around the world than all the foreign policy of the last 50 years. Leading by example.

I've left my village now. The project at Itundu Elementary School was completed in my last week. I'll write a longer post about that (and put up some pictures) when I get to Dar, Tuesday or Wednesday. Thanks again to everyone who helped with that. I can't tell you how grateful the entire village is.

It's strange to think that I'm not going to turn around and go back to school on Monday. My last week was incredibly busy, wrapping things up, 2 goodbye parties, getting things set for the next volunteer, and trying to pack and say goodbye to everyone. And now I'm done.

A massive election

...or as the r/l mixing Tanzanians are calling it, a massive erection. As in, "It seems there at your home you are have a massive erection today, Mr. Gregor." Yes. Almost. Something like that.

But I'm hopeful. I'm updating my blog at 4:00 am, having gone to another volunteer's site to follow the election coverage in his school's computer lab. We're also making a victory cake for dear Mr. Obama, though hopefully we're not too premature.

I can only imagine it's very different following the election from outside of America, especially this year. In America, things are so split, so even. Outside America, every African (of course) but it seems every Peace Corps volunteer, staff member, every volunteer of any sort from other organizations, every UN employee, every ex-pat I've talked to, are unanimous in their support for Obama.

And all I can think of is how nice it would be to come home to a president-elect I could be proud of. One that doesn't make fun of bombing other countries. One that didn't pick a running mate based on gender instead of qualifications. One that might actually make healthcare affordable for average Americans, bring an expensive and pointless war to a close, one that can lead America and lead in the world...

Happy election day, everyone.