07 September 2007 - 13:23
There’s no mark on my arm, and that means I don’t have tuberculosis. That was my last hurdle to clear in my Close of Service processing, and now I’m cleared to go home. Tonight, I fly out of Mauritania for the very last time. After 38 months, I’m finally done. And it feels great.
This being my last post from the Sahara, I feel like I should write something deep and philosophical about my time here, and I’ve really been thinking about what to say about it for the past week, but I’ve come up with nothing at all. I’m kind of just glad it’s over. It’s been a great experience, interesting, pretty fun, and I’ve learned a lot, but honestly, I don’t think I ever really liked it here all that much. Peace Corps is supposed to be really rewarding, but I feel like I got shortchanged – I’ve never felt like my work here has been rewarding, and I certainly didn’t get the cultural experience that I thought I would (Mauritania is a total black hole of culture). I really don’t think Peace Corps should be operating here. I don’t think any aid agencies should be operating here – Mauritanians don’t want them around, they just want a handout. And the majority of people live the way they do in this country either because they don’t care that they live in poverty, or they are too lazy to do anything about it. And the changes that could be made to improve the lives of people here can’t be made by foreigners – they have to be initiated by Mauritanians…who just don’t care enough to do it.
You can probably tell I’m jaded. Yeah. I’ll get over it, I’m sure, once I’m away from here. But this experience has definitely made me pretty leery of development work. I’m not going to throw the towel in completely, because other parts of the world could be vastly different from Mauritania, but from what I hear and read, probably not different enough to make me change my mind about development work. So it’s not a viable career option that I’m considering, like it was three years ago. At least I’ve narrowed my choices down a little, right?
So why did I stay a third year? Well, I didn’t necessarily like it here, but I didn’t detest it either, and I had several reasons for staying, all related to me and my career goals, not really having any altruistic base to them at all. And things have worked out pretty well so far – I’m glad I stayed.
But I have missed my family and friends a lot while I was here, and I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot of things that have happened back home in the last three years. I'm ready to get back.
Peace Corps volunteers are supposed to have a hard time re-integrating into American culture. They give us books and handouts and even make us attend a conference mainly focused on reintroduction to American culture. I think it’s all in our heads…I mean, seriously, what is so difficult about going back to the greatest country in history? Driving cars? Having a million food choices at supermarkets that are open 24 hours a day? Watching football games in the fall? Getting a real job and not being dirt poor? Hanging out with friends who like the same things you do? Using a real toilet? Eating with utensils? Sounds great to me! I’m not going to have any re-integration issues – the US is going to be awesome. Granted, it’s not perfect, but it’s better than here, hands down.
So like I said, I fly out tonight. A lot of volunteers travel around the world after their service, blowing the meager readjustment allowance that we get when we leave, but I’m taking mine to the US and blowing it there. On my way home, I’m stopping in London for a day, Chicago for a few days (where I get to take the new Foreign Service Officer Test two days after arriving in the country – yeehaw), then Houston before I drive up to Tulsa to watch some football. I’m going to Duncan for a week, then flying to California for two weeks before I fly back to Tulsa for Homecoming, and then I move to Houston, where I’ll hunker down and try to survive my first real winter in three years.
Rock and roll. Smell ya later, Mauritania.
