Winding Up. Winding Down. Grinding to a halt?

Some kids from the orphanage
for older children.

With a tentative COS (Peace Corps lingo for ‘finishing’) date of September 20th, I am looking at about 3 months left of service. What am I expecting for those three months?

Winding Up.

There will be increasingly more time spent trying to secure a job in the states [by the way, here is a link to my resume, feel free to pass it on to prospective consulting opportunities – any help in that department would be amazing]. I also will have to do other annoying things - like find a place to live. In short, lots of logistical brew-ha-ha that no one is really interested in reading about.

Also, the bone-chilling frost has given away to blissful, shirt-soaking heat. This means that the beach season is stirring itself into a frenzy, which is great fun.

Winding Down.

As expected, work is starting to slow down. Projects that I have won this past winter and fall are starting to finish and I am not here long enough to apply for new ones [besides some easy smaller ones]. My most productive days are spent trying to track down receipts, document project conclusions and teaching English. All-in-all, work is still satifying.

Grinding to a halt?

One interesting situation that has come up for the second time in my two years is elections. If you remember, my first few months as a volunteer were spent dealing with a new mayor. This finally led to me being moved to Shoumen.

This year, the mayor of Shoumen is running for national office [a good thing because he is a really sharp, motivated guy]. If he is elected, we will have new elections for his old job…oh boy. This means that work around here will drop to a near standstill while people wait to see who the new mayor is – and if that new mayor will let them keep their jobs. But, for me, this is just borrowing trouble because I have finished most of the work that needed support of the mayor and other higher-ups. I can easily spend the end of my time here doing other small projects. Nevertheless, it will be interesting.

Hope all is well,
Mark

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