I Rule!

Tech trip was awesome. Exhausting, at times slightly frustrating, but mostly it went really well. In spite of my supervisor, rather than making me feel like a failure, it instead became an awesome cap to my service.

When I came into town on Sunday right before the trip, I learned that I had been played even worse than I thought. Apparently while I was in Senegal, everyone at training (this includes volunteers, training coordinators, and some admin folk) had decided to cancel my trip and just send all the AG trainees to Gotheye for one tech trip. My boss however did not agree and kept working as if there was a tech trip. When I showed up in Niamey talking about the tech trip, it was apparently news to everyone else that it was still going there. My boss basically defeated them all by keeping me in the dark about this alternate plan, because if i had caught wind of it I would have won it for them hands down by just saying no. I hate finding out that I was used in such a fashion. Especially when it put so much stress on me and had me freaking out.

But anyway, I put on the best tech trip I could muster, and feel like I pretty much defeated him. Despite his best efforts to mess up my schedule and add or remove programs left and right at the last minute, I was ready for him. My schedule was flexible and padded enough that I was always able to keep it going smoothly, even if it did mean there was a lot of down time and I was running around like a madman the whole time. But I think that was exactly what the trainees needed. They are pushed so hard up at site that I figured they deserved a more leasurely couple of days. They all seemed to have had a good time. It just annoys me that the only one who really knows what I had to go through to pull this off is the my boss.

Site announcements are also today, and I got to pick my replacement out of the two Zarma girls that visited my post. Both of them I think will be a great fit so it was kind of an arbitrary decision. They also both loved my cats and spoiled them rotten, so I don't have to worry about them anymore.

With all this over, I really feel like I'm done now. The only work I have left to do is to wrap up all my COS paperwork and figure out what I'm doing next. I already have my plane ticket off this continent (Accra, Ghana to London, England) so there's no denying it anymore. I'm leaving. Which was bittersweet to begin with, but has become even more saddening for other reasons. Khala suuru I guess.


Life is messy.