Instead of leaving you all hanging for the next three or four weeks I'll let you in on the process that is pending right now regarding what my next future step is! I finally made the (crazy) decision that of accepting a Peace Corps position (as a health volunteer) in a town (Atakpame) in Togo for TWO more years!! Yikes... I know.
I had the option between Guinea, Mali, Togo (and informally) Swaziland. All the other jobs did not sound like what I was looking to do though. The only reason I wanted to stay in teh first place was to work (as directly as possible) with people who are infected by HIV (or even might be in the last stages of AIDS). If I wouldn't be able to do this I probably would decide to just go home to the States.
The position in Togo sounded most ideal. As you might know, Togo is a neighboring country of Benin (next door to the left or West). If I go I will be working with two associations for people living with HIV and AIDS. Between them they offer a lot of services from home visits to ARVs to psychological group and counseling support to VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) and other services.
To be honest, I am rather worn out by living in Africa (and not getting out of Benin in the last two years) but I think that if I were to have a month of vacation at home (my preference would be late October to late November) that I would be ready and refreshed to come back to the continent that I love!
So... why is this process pending if I already made my decision? Everything is set to go but before I actually go I need to be medically cleared by Peace Corps Benin saying that I have no ongoing health problems. If I do have any outstanding health problems then I will not be allowed to transfer to Togo at all and would stay in Benin through September of this year.
This is possible because I do have ongoing problems with my voice. Everyone knows my voice has not always been the best. However, in the last two years my voice has been strained and aggravated from teaching (and basically screaming) for four hours, four times a week for two years! So I've been coming to Cotonou every weekend to have voice/speech therapy appointments every Friday and Monday to eventually complete 10 sessions before guaging if my voice is back to the way it was two years ago.
There are a battery of other exams that I need to do and some of them need to be sent to the U.S. before receiving results. One exam will take at least two to three weeks before results are sent back to Benin. Meanwhile, there's no way of knowing if I'd be medically cleared before the results come back.
If it turns out that I am medically cleared then I will be leaving Benin around June 23rd to my town of Atakpame. They said they can be flexible as far as what month I take to go home. My preference would be around October 29th to November 29th (to get Thanksgiving in there) but then to be back before Dec. 1st for World AIDS Day. I could technically go home and get in Thanksgiving and Christmas but I honestly don't think I'm ready for all the hype and commercialism and business of Christmas. It'd be better to go back when everyone is calm and things are chill because it'll be enough culture shock as it is to be back home for a month.
So as soon as I hear anything I will blog it here and also send out emails.
But the world does not revolve around me, I woudl love to hear how all of you are doing!
