Friday, November 5, 2010

Replacement, Standing By...

The last five days were spent running around town with my replacement. Yassin, as we will call him for now until he chooses to reveal himself, is now acquainted with his host family (the same one I had), has his future lodgings secured for life after homestay (my house), has met his new sitemate (Donniell) his counterpart and "the guys", has a P.O. box and has seen a good amount of the town. There's a lot to take in, of course, and five days doesn't cover much. That's what the two years are for, anyway, right? He's excited to be here. I'm excited for him, and am looking forward to hearing how his service progresses. Currently he's on his way back to the training site to finish up and swear in, then will be back later this month.

Having my replacement arrive has given me some perspective on my own service; he represents the future of Peace Corps involvement here, and thus I am more able to see what I have done as part of a bigger picture, placed between his time to come and Dominique's time before my own. I feel appreciative of them all-- past, present and future-- as great contributions to a worthwhile endeavor, and a pretty amazing thing to have been a part of. Just when you thought I had exhausted all the cliché lines in the previous post...

Only three more nights left in Amizmiz. There's tonight, I'll be in Marrakech over weekend to meet a visitor, then back to town for the last two nights, leaving Wednesday morning. Crazy. The goodbyes have been going fine, though the tough ones are still to come. My plans to say farewell to the host fam have been thwarted repeatedly, as my mom has somehow persuaded me into coming back for coffee again and again, drawing it out to a total of four goodbyes on successive afternoons thus far. At least soon we'll run out of days; my will to decline the invitations sure doesn't seem to be getting any stronger. But really, what the hey...

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