Thanksgiving

This post may be coming a little late, but I’ve had a pretty eventful weekend. This weekend on Saturday Peace Corps celebrated traditional American holiday. Robin, the Charge d’Affairs, hosted a pot luck at her house, an event which we have been waiting all year for. We were not disappointed, food was great and so was the company.

The whole weekend has been long in coming since school is over for the most part. Prize giving (read: Graduation) is this upcoming Wednesday. Today is also memorable because we are seeing off Cale and Sara. They will be missed. Well here are pictures from Thanksgiving.

I assisted Jenny in making the rice krispy treats

Jim cooking up some bacon for his mashed potatos

Robin’s Living Room

The Bacon Turkey

Blakey and Spencer helping out in the kitchen

Chillin’ on the balcony

Reflections on the first year of service

With school coming to a close, I have had alot of free time on my hands. I havn’t taught classes in about a month, and this week is exam week. I have had to supervise some of the exams and so I’ve gotten alot of reading done. I’ve also had a lot of time to sit and reflect on my peace corps experience and what its meant to me. Seeing as this is about the year mark for me, I think that this reflection has been constructive, as it can help prepare me for next year.

When I left I never wanted to say this, but I think I am very different from the person I was back in the states. Even though it has only been a year in real time, it feels as though it was alot longer, and so it feels as though I’ve taken more than a year of experience from it. For one thing, it has made me far more cynical, but at the same time reinforced my idealism. I believe I do have the power to make a difference, only that it will take baby steps.

I have no new pictures to show, but I thought that in the spirit of this post, I would put up some pictures from the course of this year, and sort of best of. Anyway, here goes:

The ‘stache

Getting ready to meet our host families

Chillin’ in the village

LFC, aka Roma Fou, home of the Romantic Souljahs

My year 12 class

My Year 13 student, pointing to Samoa

The computer lab, when I arrived

The computer lab, today

Playing at the waterfall