Mid-service medical and my flight out

My bag is packed and I'm ready to travel to see family and friends.

I am in Accra for mid-service medical exams and my flight back home. I will be leaving for the airport in less than 24 hours as I write this short post! I already have my boarding passes.

It has been about 436 days since I started Peace Corps training and service. The first three months was training as a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) and one year as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCT). One year left in service. But who's counting? My estimated close of service (COS) is Monday August 15, 2016. This date is flexible with something like 30 days plus or minus to spread out those leaving the country and to allow last minute work on the site.


Looking back and looking forward


At the half way point I've gotten a lot out of my service in Ghana so far and hopefully given at least a little to the students and the community. Dropping in the middle of a foreign community to find your place and figure out what you can do is a challenge – but the struggle is worth the effort as you make new friends and self adjustments you did not were possible. Among the minor things I've found that I can live without a refrigerator and I can poop in a hole. I can relax when things go not so right – rather than react with anger or frustration. (Nothing goes completely right it seems.) Learning to just to be present when things are happening and not getting worked up about it has been very helpful and healthy. I'm only taking half of my blood pressure medication.

Along the last 14-15 months I've lost about 35 pounds but I'm still, just barely, within the normal weight BMI. I checked my belt and my waist is between 3 and 4 inches thinner. I'm healthy enough although the cough is getting worse and I won a free chest X-ray with my medical exam (that was normal)

Belt I've been using - there are 4 new holes since I arrived in Ghana.
I don't want (and don't think I will need) to add a 5th.

Looking back on the last year the big thing was for the junior high school to move from its three classroom building into the new 6 classroom. The new school was suppose to be for the junior high, then the primary took it, then it was agreed that the junior high would get it, then the primary kept it – moving out and back in. Before I left sight I got a letter signed by the major interested parties in the school system and the community that the junior high would get the bulk of the new school, sharing one classroom with the primary so the oldest primary students can be with the junior high students. We take five classrooms – splitting the 70 something form 2 students into two classes and using a classroom as a computer room.

I'm putting together a grant so I can help provide the computer room and a library suitable for teaching and studying. I am using a grant that does not require external fund raising. Although, there are a number of worthy projects seeking donations at https://beta.peacecorps.gov/donate/

It would have been nice if there had been no problem with the school and I could have had the grant funded months ago so that the computer room and library would be ready by the start of term 1. As it is now the rooms will not be ready until the start of term 2 at best. Well, it is not the best, but two-thirds of a school year is better than none.

I'm not sure what I will do immediately after I COS – likely visit friends in Europe and possible walk some of the El Camino in Spain before returning to the US. After getting back home I know I will visit family and friends across the country as well as some of the sites and parks in the United States. At my age I don't think I could easily get a job back in my field which is just as well, because I really don't want to go back to a corporate job. I might find some volunteering or some part time work at some point, but it will not be high on my list for the first six months at least.


Health update


My cough got worse as I arrived in Accra and this morning I've got a gravelly voice. I'm now on some medicine that should start helping (and as mentioned above I won a free chest x-ray as part of the medical review – it was normal). The check for intestinal parasites came back negative so I must be doing something right as far as eating meat in country.



Love always,
John

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