Deuteronomy 31:8

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8







Monday, August 13, 2012

Preparing for the end

This is it, my final month living in my village. Where did these last two years go? I have been brainstorming ideas about a going away party which I will throw for myself and figuring out what things of mine I will carry with me to my new place and which stuff I will leave in the village. Besides thinking about these things, I haven’t really thought about leaving and saying goodbye to my home and the people I have grown so close to over these two years because it is just too hard. Sometimes I have tried to think about saying goodbye but I have to stop because I get lots of anxiety and end up crying. It’s a bad scene. I mean leaving America was hard and sad, but at least with friends and family back home we can communicate frequently with email, letters (kind of), Skype, phone calls, etc, but in my village people just have phones and only limited network. And I spend a majority of my time with children ages 5-10 so they do not own phones and cannot really write or read a letter so how am I supposed to keep connected with them? I am also struggling with a “should of, could of, would of” mentality. I keep thinking that I could have done more in my village, wishing I would have tried to do a preschool, thinking I could have spent more time in my village, and many more things. However, it seems when I really get down thinking about all the things I didn’t do I get a word of encouragement from someone in my village that I did well and they will miss me. The biggest compliment I have received is from the head teacher of Misengo Basic School. We were riding on the bus coming back and talking about me leaving and he just told me, “Emily we will miss you so much. You dedicated your time to Misengo and really invested in our people and learned about us and let us into your life to learn about you. You will never be forgotten.” It’s a good thing we were on a bus because otherwise I would have cried right there on the spot! The one thing that will make leaving my village more bearable is the fact that I am not yet leaving Zambia. I have been approved to stay for a third year and have FINALLY figured out where I will be and what I will be doing. I am moving to Kitwe which is in the Copperbelt Province. It’s the second largest city in Zambia so it will be a big leap from the simple life I have been leading in the bush. And it’s also SO much closer to Lusaka which will make any travelling so much better. Instead of a 10-14 hour ride I will only have to face one that is about 6 hours. I will be working for Society for Family Health (SFH) as a Communications Assistant. In reading the job description it sounds a lot like things I do now but this time I will work with a team instead of by myself. SFH does all sorts of health marketing things like family planning (pills, IUCD), male circumcision, HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, and I will be a part of a team that goes out before they do these technical things and give the community education about it to prepare them for it. And because I have a nursing background they have asked if I would be willing to do quality assurance as well after they give me training. I am not totally sure what they mean by quality assurance, but from the description is sounds like I will just be making sure that standards of care are being met. So now I go for my final weeks! I remember when I first came I was hoping some days or weeks would go by quickly, but now I am just hoping that time will slow down a little bit.

2 comments:

  1. It sounds like leaving your village is very bittersweet. I'm excited for you new adventure! Enjoy the remainder of your time :)

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  2. thanks for the update em. LOVE reading them. cant wait to see you oh so soon!

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