Clock is ticking

I'll forgo the usually rambling about not posting more often and just
say; sorry. Moving on to the meat of the post, yes, I have less than
two months to go. The two year anniversary has come and gone (rather
uneventfully I may add) and the count down is running. Some
volunteers in my group are actually under the 1 month mark. Due to
the winding down of the school year many of the teachers will be left
with little to do towards the end of November since final exams are at
the beginning of November even though the school year officially ends
in early December.

I know, you are asking yourself, what goes on for that whole month if
final exams are over. Well, since some volunteers are leaving in mid
and later November that should give you a hit. To be less cryptic,
not too much academic-wise, happens during that last month. As far as
I understand it, there are sports, singing, dance and drama practice,
all in preparation for the prize giving in early December. Some
volunteers will be sticking around until the prize giving but I can
also understand why some are choosing to go home before, especially to
make it home in time for Thanksgiving.

I was hoping to be one of those but my responsibilities for the Health
Project have created the obligation to stay until mid-December. I was
going to play it off like I had to stay and then come home early and
surprise Whitney for Thanksgiving but no such luck. Ah well, can't
complain too much, I signed up for two years and three months and by
golly it looks I'm gonna do it all!

There is lots to do as the calendar moves closer to December. Of
course we have all the paperwork and official hoops to jump through
for Peace Corps, shopping to buy presents for friends, family and co-
workers (or the village for those outside of Apia) in Samoa. Dido for
those back home, for which I expect certain reciprocations upon my
return having bought all those presents with my oh-so meager Peace
Corps salary. (hint, hint!) I have the unique pleasure of having to
go to American Samoa to take my GRE because evidently Masters Degrees
from Australia aren't good enough and the true measure of a person and
their ability to succeed in graduate school is via an overpriced
standardized test. Griping aside, there are no testing centers in
Samoa so I have to hop over to American Samoa for a night. The test
starts at 8:00am and there is an early morning flight but the
reliability of the plane is not that great so I will need to go the
night before incase there are delays or I have to catch a different
flight.

And of course I need to wrap up my projects! The Red Cross project is
a bit of a quagmire at the moment and I won't delve into specifics but
I will figure out some solution before I am out of here. The Health
Project has had its ups and downs as to be expected. Some villages
have dropped out due to low/no participation which is unfortunate but
not surprising. Other villages are doing ok and others really well.
We are really learning a lot from this first go round and I am already
thinking of some changes for the second round next year (which will be
someone else's responsibility, definitely not mine). That project
literally ends the last day I am in country. Well I will actually
have some work I will need to bring back with me to the states to
finish up but the initial evaluation meeting will be the week of the
13th the day of or day before my departure. Needless to say, I won't
be cruising through my last weeks here.

On that note I will get some work done on the health project ad leave
you there. Until next time.