I thought that Yemen was a type of noodle. – Wellington Seufale
There has been a rather interesting reaction in Samoa to my heading to Yemen, my favorite of which is the quote above. Sarah, bless her heart, responded by immediately sending me a bunch of articles on Yemen and a report back from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website. She told me a few things about what it said, but the only fact that she gave me that really stuck was that there are no mosquitoes in Sanaa due to the altitude. (I am SO there.)
The first people who were officially told were the Peace Corps. They were incredibly understanding. I had expected them to be disappointed or angry, I really should have known better. They were excited for me and eager to hear about my new job. They suggested that I talk with my job myself and let them know that I was planning on leaving. I quickly gathered together my things and went to do so.
A strange thing happened then. You see, I have a watch that Sarah and Dylan gave me and it's one of my more treasured possessions because whenever I look at it I think of them. It was one of the last gifts that was given to me before I left. Anyway, after I talked to the Peace Corps I did some shopping and a bit later noticed that my watch had stopped at 8:16 that morning. Which begs the question: what was I doing at 8:16 that caused my watch to stop? I did some math in my head. I had arrived at the office at 8:07, and had looked at my watch to make sure that the office was open. I went in and waited for a few minutes to talk with Jackie. Then after some small talk I dropped the bomb, officially going past The Point of No Return. In other words, the watch that Sarah and Dylan gave me as going-to-Samoa present stopped the minute that I told Jackie that I would be leaving Samoa. Weird, huh? (Fortunately it only cost me $12 tala to get it fixed.)
Headed back to work. I had two people at my job to tell—my dean and the head of my department. Since I was giving them a single week notice I understood that they would be pretty pissed at me. I told my dean and she was disappointed but supportive. She asked if I was sure that I couldn't stay a few more weeks and I assured her that this was not possible. She told me that it sounded like a good opportunity and wished me luck. I walked out of her office feeling like a real fink.
The conversation with my department head changed that that feeling very quickly. She became quite angry and started out by telling me that I could not leave, due to some shadowy non-existent contract that I was bound to. She told me that if I was to leave she would "write me up to the Peace Corps". (I told her to go ahead.) She called me irresponsible and she told me that "they" had not wanted me to come in the first place but had made room for me because I wanted to come. In other words, she could not have made me more eager to leave the job had she stood up and thrown a rock at me. If this was her trying to get me to stay, I wondered what she would do to me to try and get me to leave. Needless to say, I left her office knowing that I made the right choice, and so for this conversation I am thankful.
Afterwards, I started to tell the other Peace Corps volunteers. I decided that I didn't to announce it and rather decided to tell people as it came up. Now you might think that something like this wouldn't come up very often, but you are wrong. A friend invited me to dinner the next week: "Sorry, I can't, I'll be in Yemen." I was asked if I would be able to attend a dance practice Tuesday: "No, I'll be flying to Yemen." "Hey Tima, what brings you to the office today?" You get the idea. Most people thought that I was joking. The rest thought that I was insane.
I did inform the training staff right off, because sometimes they take people who ET (early terminate) a bit personally. Leata, (the "mom" trainer) was very concerned once she found out where the country was and leaned towards me and warned me that I should be very careful. "Because, well, there are a lot of, you know, Arabs there," she said in a whisper as if the people in Yemen could hear her. The look on her face was so serious and terrified that all I could do was burst out laughing, I am ashamed to say.
My students were next and I was quite touched that all my classes—including my 184, who I tend to be very mean to—were very sad to see me go. Wellington made the above comment and Werner asked me why I was going to Yemen to teach English when I couldn't spell. I told him that he made a good point but that I was still going. Sick of trying to explain where Yemen was and completely unable to create a hand-drawn map of the Middle East I started to carry a map around with me, and made Yemen the focus of a cheesy PowerPoint presentation (viewable here) to demonstrate creating tutorials for my Human-Interface class. I've turned into a new celebrity at the school, with all my students whipping out their cameras and snapping pictures of me everywhere I go. Unfortunately, I gave all my nice clothes to my family, and I am not wearing the new stuff I bought so that it can stay "fresh". Dressed in the leftover stuff that is destined for the give-away pile, I look pretty shabby. Plus my hair is in an awkward "teenage" state after a year of growth. I can't wait to start covering it.
My family. I knew that they would be the hardest to say goodbye to. I was giving them everything that I was not taking with, from all my clothes (even my Wonder Woman shirt and my glow-in-the-dark XBox Tee, now THAT'S love) to my fire dancing stick to the sponges that I never used. The Peace Corps was kind enough to drive me to Niusuatia with all my stuff (and my cat, Gigi) to give them everything and say goodbye. Unfortunately, my family did not have their phone and so there was no way I could warn them. So Tuesday afternoon Papu and I just drove onto their lawn in a Peace Corps vehicle with all my stuff in the back. Talosia, my mom, was thrilled because she thought that I was moving in, as I had threatened to do in the past. I told them no, I am going to Yemen and showed them where it was on the map. They thought that this was hilarious and asked when I was coming back. I told them that I wasn't coming back and Talosia got quiet while the kids started happily going through the stuff that I brought. Then Talosia asked when I was coming back before I left for Yemen. I told her I wasn't and she demonstrated her understanding of the situation by bursting into tears. I followed quickly after. My sister Anne just sat in a chair, shocked and dumbstruck and never said a word. All I could say was "I'm sorry… I'm sorry." I felt so terrible, among other things, for causing so much pain. If there was a time when I would have taken it all back and decided not to leave it was when I saw the look in my sister's eyes as she stood up to say goodbye to me. This was the hardest goodbye that I have ever said because I wasn't able to express how I felt, and I know that I will probably never see them again. I mean, they don't even have email. I am going to write them a letter telling them how much their love meant to me in the time that I was here.
I walked to the pastors house to say goodbye to Ruta (who was not expelled from the village after the Easter incident) and she greeted me by saying "Tima! What a surprise!" I smiled and wiped some leftover tears away (the nice thing about Samoa is that when you cry people just think that you are very hot) and told her, "Well, if you think that THIS is a surprise, just wait…"
Just a few more days. All my bags are packed and I'm SO ready to go!!!
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