Uganda Read This!: COS? CO-Yes!

Three weeks ago I was sitting around an Olympic sized pool, working out in a gym, and learning all about life post Peace Corps in an air-conditioned conference room with comfortable office chairs.

I was at my Close of Service, COS, Conference.

COS was a surreal experience, for it seems like yesterday I was boarding the plane at SFO on my way to Staging in Philadelphia. I vividly remember my first night under a mosquito net and my first, and last, taste of matooke. I remember the first days of my first, second, and third site.

I remember the beginning.

And now the end.

Peace Corps put us up in one of the swankiest hotels I have ever stayed in.

Go ahead and Google “Speke at Munyonyo”.

Told ya so!

Our rooms were air-conditioned to the point that I was shivering. There were not one but two pools, including an infinity pool overlooking Lake Victoria. There was so much good food, including salad, cheese, cheesecake, various hearty soups, fish of all sorts, broccoli and cauliflower, turkey bacon, and homemade yogurt. There was a gym with functioning treadmills accompanied with their own personal television.

While these first world comforts were great after 22 months spent in a village in rural Uganda, we were there to learn about the transition home after service. Sessions included reflecting on our service by mapping out our highs and lows, learning about how to say goodbye at site, closing up projects, remaining vigilant in our final months, what we have to do in order to officially become a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, RPCV, preparing our Description of Service, job hunting post-PC, and having a panel made up of RPCVs to help answer some of our questions.

All in all the conference was a success.

As we took our final group picture it was a moment to remember those who have been with us from the beginning of this journey. Some are back in the States and some will remain behind in Uganda for a couple extra months. Some will leave in May and others will leave in August.

What I realized at that precious moment when we all said “Cheese” was that this would be the last time we would all be in Uganda together. Reunion’s would hopefully happen back in the States but until then no one knew when we would see each other again.

Who knew if the next time we saw each other we would be married, working for the government, back in school, on another Peace Corps adventure, or living in a different village occupying a corner of the world we had yet to experience.

It was a moment to cherish.

The evenings of COS Conference brought a very competitive trivia, which I am happy to say the team I was on came in second. I helped contribute to the pop trivia category thanks to the recent package filled with US Weekly magazines.

On our last night we realized this was it and in the morning some of us would journey back to our sites. To end on a positive note a fellow Volunteer, Meish, and I put together COS Awards. We had seventy awards to be given, including most likely cook local food in the States, most likely to hire a house boy/girl back home, most likely to bring back dance moves to America, most likely to fall in a Kampala manhole, and most likely to be found at the local brew circle. Everyone took away at least one award, which was accompanied by an acceptance speech.

Yours truly took home two awards for most likely to adopt Ugandan babies and most likely to be barefoot and pregnant in two years. What can I say? I like children.

The evening was full of laughs… Then tears. Another Volunteer, Craig, decided it would be a good idea for us to all share some final words and thoughts with each other.

Before the first person finished, I was in tears. People talked about the friendships formed, the bonds that will never be broken, the fact that we are CHED-12-14 and no one can take that away from us, and about the experience not ending here.

During the four days at The Speke all of the troubles that we had during our service were put aside. We forgot about the rumors and the differences and focused on the present moment.

I am so blessed and happy to be apart of CHED-12-14. There is no other group I would rather have had to come to country with. We are a classy group of people who not only like to look good but also have supported each other through this whirlwind of an experience.

In the words of Elle Woods, “I have come to find that passion is a key ingredient to the study and practice of ~~law~~ volunteerism and of life. It is with passion, courage of conviction and strong sense of self that we take our next steps into the world remembering that first impressions are not always correct. You must always have faith in people and most importantly you must always have faith in yourself. Congratulations, Class of ~~2004~~ 2014. We did it!”

Oh! And I am happy and sad to say that as of August 22, 2014, I will be a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. See you in September America!