And the winner is...

---

Burkina! Tough call between there and Lesotho, and mostly it came down to the fact that I had to just pick one. In Burkina I can continue to learn French and the teaching will be similar to what I did in Guinea, therefore my training is more applicable there. Also in the southern hemisphere (Lesotho) the school year has just started. Since I need to be home my the summer of '08, I'd have to either leave in the middle of the school year or come home a few months early with nothing to do. Being in Burkina also means being close to Guinea, and if the program were to reopen there perhaps I could help out with training new volunteers or at least visit.

Yet my research on Lesotho piqued my interest...I'll just have to travel around southern Africa one day. Since I seem to be pretty good at avoiding "real jobs," it just might be possible sometime.

There will be two other volunteers from my stage transferring to Burkina with me, Will and Dr. Jen. Geoffrey and Christine will be nearby in Niamey, Niger along with Jen Clowers. Adam from my stage will be in Ghana, and Felipe will be in Lesotho. Four volunteers (Kyan, Huai-Ming, Jeanne, and Stephanie) will be doing girls' education in Togo. Ashley will go to the Gambia to do Small Enterprise Development (SED). Two SED volunteers (Molly and Andrea) are leaving tonight for Madagascar. Trey is doing a three-month project teaching at the University of Bamako. There are some other transfers that I can't think of right now, and there are some volunteers who have found jobs with NGOs around Africa. Most people who are finishing their service are traveling all over Africa and Europe before going home. Best of luck to all.

Well it's been a long day of deliberating and trying to get medical stuff done. It will take a week or so to get medically cleared to leave Guinea and start work in Burkina. Then I will head to my next post with my one airplane-carry-on-sized evacuation bag, ready to start anew.

---

Comments

[melissa]

:)
good job! how long have you been waiting? its must be crazy to start again...but you are tough guess what is on tv? love actually! so its actually funny that i am reading your blog and hearing the movie. congratulations on sticking it out!