Transition Conference

The adventure continues in Morocco for now…

Thank you all for the kind emails and other messages of support, I feel so lucky to have such an incredible support network around me and it’s making this whole process a lot easier.

I have been in Morocco well over a week, and it looks like I will be here another week and a half before I head to RWANDA. Beginning February 6 (the day after Daniela turns the big 1-6!) I will be a Peace Corps Rwanda Community Health Volunteer.

How this came about is a little bit of a mystery and I’m not sure what sort of universal alignment of stars has allowed me to fall into this… all I can say right now is WOW.

When I arrived in Morocco Monday January 17^th with the remaining Peace Corps Niger Volunteers (PCVs) we began what is known in the Peace Corps world as a “transition conference”, also known as: this sucks a lot. We spent a week going through all the things normal PCVs do when they close service after two years: meetings on what it’s like to return to American culture; resume building and career opportunities; lots of medical exams to make sure we didn’t have crazy parasites… you get the picture.

We also had lots of meetings to discuss how to continue our Peace Corps service. Close to 100 PCVs were evacuated from Niger and almost everyone wanted to continue working in another country. I think this desire to continue service speaks volumes about the caliber of people I’ve had the pleasure to work with over the last three months. Unfortunately, however, finding transfer positions for 97 PCVs is not easy.

The transition conference staff (who were all incredibly patient and understanding) gave us four basic options: 1) COS. Your service is considered finished, move on to something else. 2) Re-Enroll. Go home for a few months, rejoin Peace Corps as a new volunteer. 3) Expedited Return to Service (ERS). Start Peace Corps all over again within the next 60 days. 4) Direct Transfer (DT). Go directly from Morocco to another country and continue serving as a volunteer.      

Although most people were interested in ERS or DT, very few spots were available, and even fewer matched each individual’s language and skill sets. When the options were first presented, I decided re-enrollment would probably be best for me. My thought process was: life is not a race, and now is not the time to jump back into anything. ERS and/or DT seemed great if you knew exactly what you wanted, but chances were exactly what you wanted would not be available.

The next day, the ERS and DT positions available were posted for all of us to see. Among the positions posted was one in Rwanda, as a Health/Organizational Capacity Development Volunteer: I could not have written myself a more perfect job description, or picked a more interesting country.

The next day, after some confusion (my dear friend Jorie Aldrich and I often confuse Peace Corps staff), I learned there was in fact a position for me in Rwanda!

So right now I’m waiting in Morocco until Peace Corps Rwanda gets everything straightened out. Again, I have no idea how this ridiculous set of circumstances has allowed me to be in the position that I’m in, but I won’t question the cosmos…

I am really excited about my new position in Rwanda and the chance to travel Morocco. I have been incredibly lucky given the circumstances; still, my heart is aching for Niger. I know it’s easy to look back, now that I have hot showers and a real toilet to sit on, but I’d give up running water in a second to go back to Niger.

I guess what I'm really realizing now is the extent to which my privilege really separates me. Not only do I get swooped out of danger as soon as Peace Corps deems it necessary, but I get flown to safety in a beautiful country, given a mini vacation, and a new job. Meanwhile, my Nigerien colleagues and supervisors are out of jobs and potentially at risk.

It’s a really strange predicament and I’m not sure what to do about it other than simply acknowledge it for the time being… sai hankrui.