Extension

Starting something like the Peace Corps, you have to forfeit your concept of time. You can’t go into an experience like this with 26 or 27 months hanging over your head. Being away from family, friends, and a really good tuna sandwich for so long is just too much to bear.

With that said, earlier in my service I thought about the time a lot. Will I finish? What will I do here? and, of course, Will this ever be over!? But eventually I put my head down and got on with the business of living in the Peace Corps.

Then all of a sudden, my friends were finishing their service and I was getting emails from Minneapolis and Zanzibar. “Where the hell is Zanzibar?” I thought. What felt like it would never finish was finally coming to an end.

Then a curious thing happened; I realized I wasn’t ready for it to be over. I still have a few projects to complete, plus I have really exciting travel plans this December, but really …I just enjoy being here. Besides, I figure is a singular experience in my life, even if I do the Peace Corps again someday, and after building all these relationships I might as well stick around and enjoy them.

So on October 6^th, 2007, after being in South Africa for two years and two months, my original close of service date quietly passed. I said goodbye to one of my best friends in Pretoria and sent him off to catch a plane. Two days later I was on a seven-hour bus ride back to my village.

As I write this, I have a bit more than four months before I fly home in early March. And once I return from Zanzibar (get an atlas) I’ll only have two months left. So I’m enjoying every moment. Besides, by that time my tuna sandwich won’t be far off and I figure the number of times I exclaim “Will this ever be over!?” should be severely limited.