Lome: time running out...

At this point, I just have 2 and a half weeks left in West Africa. Coming close to the end of the summer, now it starts to feel as though time has gone by quickly.

I haven't left Lome since I came back from Dakar, just doing some work steadily and hanging around. One of our regional managers who kickstarted the Clinton Foundation program here in Togo, but has now returned to the US, was in town for a few days, and it was great to hear her insight and get to see a new dimension of our program here. After being here for 2.5 months, you would think that I would really know all the ropes by now, but I find myself still asking very basic questions about how we work on the ground in Togo and in West Africa in general, and sometimes the answers are very simple but they make more and more sense to me the more weeks I spend here.

Though I'm sure I will get increasingly sentimental to leave West Africa in a couple weeks, and saying all my see-you-laters will be sad, I have been feeling very positive this last week as I come to the end of my trip. After going through some bouts of insecurity and frustration which come with any new working territory for a rampant over-thinker like myself, I am starting to realize what I have learned in my time here and that it's OK that I don't have all the answers or know how to do everything right now. I've had some interesting little projects to work on for my final weeks, and I really enjoy working with the people at the national AIDS program here, they are fun and very receptive. So I am glad to be coming to the end of my volunteer term feeling this positive about my experience.

And it also helps that Eric is coming to visit on Friday! Which is very exciting... He will be flying into Accra, so I'll head over there on Thursday and we'll spend a few days exploring Ghana before coming back to Togo. I'm also happy to have this opportunity to see a few more sights in Togo, I haven't really done much sightseeing at all in this tiny country since I got here. Eric will be here until the end of my trip, leaving the day before me from Accra as well.

More to report once I'm finally back on the road...

:)