Monday, October 25, 2010

Eighteen Days

Eighteen days. In eighteen days I'll be signing my name in a book at the offices in Rabat, then I will have finished Peace Corps... two years, three months and a few tajines later.

At this moment, things are quiet. The boxes have been shipped home, the gifts bought, final reports submitted, and everything is ready to be left behind or packed into suitcases, all of it resting in neat little stacks around my forever emptying house. A few goodbyes have been said. S is in Paris. The days are sunny and bright and chilly. It's somewhat of a limbo phase, where I'm all ready to go, but it's not quite time yet. I'm spending quality time with the sitemate and the guys, and have paid visits to TeaMaster Abdel Ali and the host fam. My surplus books, DVDs and clothes have been distributed, and all but a map of Morocco and some insect guts has been removed from my walls.

I'm awaiting a phone call to inform me of my replacement, who will be here on the 31st for a short site visit. Going on past experience, that should be several days of hurried activity as the new guy gets a crash course on Amizmiz. The day following his departure a friend of S's will be here to visit, staying through till my last day in town, the 10th of November.

As far as what it's like to be this close to finishing, it's a bit of everything, as one might expect: bittersweet, surreal, exciting-- though nothing has hit too hard just yet. It feels like that's all waiting at bay for the time being, ready to rush in as the final goodbyes are said and I'm in the taxi heading out of town. I'm not quite sure what to expect, really. It does sneak in here and there, as I walk around and think to myself that it's one of the last times I'll do so during this experience. There's a lot to be said about what this whole thing has meant to me-- more than I could ever articulate on here, but I'll probably attempt something of the sort in another post soon to come. Get yer tissues ready!

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