Lately I feel I have been balancing between closure and a new opportunity my service with Peace Corps in Morocco.
Although I have completed my service with Ameri Corps for this year I am pleased to share that the agency I have been working for has decided they love me so much they would love to keep me on permanently as full time staff.
I am also pleased that they support my choice to serve in the Peace Corps as I was up front that I was in the process of my application during my service. The agency has also been generous and kind enough to keep me on as a contractor until the week before I ship out for Morocco! Alhumdualillah.
So I have been keeping busy although I have to say its bitter sweet and going to be interesting working during Ramadan for the first time. I really hope it goes well as fasting and not consuming any liquids during the day takes a toll on your concentration and energy which means your work productivity drops to rock bottom levels regardless of your good intentions.
Its is also my last Ramadan with good friends. My last special Ramadan prayers – taraweeh and my last iftars and suhoors with them as well. InshaAllah I can squeeze some in between work and being generally out of it due to fasting.
I continue to have moments of shock where I say to myself.. wow.. I am moving to Morocco for two years.. I have a surge of anxiety and then I am usually swept back in to the frenzy of work or a mundane task at home such as doing the laundry.
I have started think about the things I will miss such as my microwave, fresh milk and cheese, grocery stores as we Americans know them, eggs that are refrigerated, washing machine and dryer other small things like certain foods, sounds and smells that embody home.
I find my self so exhausted from work that despite my best intentions – I haven’t kept up with my Rosetta Stone Arabic or studying for the GRE.
Which reminds me I better spend some time with my Rosetta stone right now. I am not sure if setting a date for the GRE test will motivate me or not given.. I will be taking the test while fasting.
“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”~ Flora Whittemore
