Ride to Site

August 26th, 2009

“Beep, Beep, Beep” My morning had begun with the sounding of my phone alarm and, quite to my surprise given the activities of the previous evening, I didn’t even snooze the alarm. After the swear in ceremony the previous evening we went out on the town, stopping at a restaurant for dinner and drinks with the largest group of Peace Corps volunteers that I had ever seen then continuing to an empty dance club where we danced the night, and most of the early morning, away. And now as the jeep lurched and bumped its way down the highway I was really paying the price.

In our jeep rode three other volunteers which we would be dropping off today. I was the last stop along the way. Chris was first. Like me, he is a SE-IT (Secondary Education – Information Technologies) volunteer. Chris has a degree in English Literature and has spent the last few years doing web-based programming in a small company that was being slowly run into the ground. His site is Yako, just a short 90km or so from Ouaga and on the paved road, which makes transport easy. Tyler and Jessi are next, a married SE and GEE respectively they are the closest volunteers to me from my stage, living just 45km to the north in a town called Tougan. Jessi and Tyler met in college and married just after graduation, spending the last year trying to get into Peace Corps in a country that spoke Spanish as they both spoke it. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for all of us here, they weren’t able to find a timely placement and so decided to start completely over and learn French!

The ride was a long one, juxtaposed with abrupt goodbyes as first Chris, then Jessi and Tyler were dropped off. And then it was my turn. We pulled up to CAFT as the last rays of light were fading from the sky. The driver, Issouf, was supposed to make another 100km that day to meet up with the next group of volunteers he was ferrying to site and was a bit flustered at running late. Things had not gone as planned. As we hastily unpacked my belongings from the jeep, my bike, two trunks for storing valuables, two duffle bags and two backpacks, a sense of excitement and loss came over me. Training (or stage) was over and now it was time to start all over again. And with a last wave, the red white and blue Peace Corps logo on the back of the jeep was gone. And I was alone.