COS Conference

We made it – to our ‘Close of Service’ Conference!  COS conference is the last Peace Corps conference of our service where the administration discusses things you need to do to in order to end your service and prepare to leave the Gambia.  It is only for the volunteers leaving in the next 3 months so it was almost all the same people we came into the country with, which made it really fun.  We discussed the highs and lows of our services, gave tips to how to improve Peace Corps Gambia and discussed writing our ‘Description of Service’, resumes, etc.  Peace Corps brings in a panel of ‘returned volunteers’ to discuss re-adjusting to life in America and we were given the opportunity to ask questions and listen to their stories.  They all said it was a little overwhelming in the beginning and that upon their return they talked about their experiences as peace corps volunteers a lot more than anyone in America wants to hear about! It was a good conference and it was nice to hang out with all of our friends that we began our service with.  Peace Corps threw us a nice dinner party where a lot of staff got the opportunity to come and give out completion certificates. 

 We had a great Christmas Eve at the Ambassador's house! Christmas Day we ate bacon and breakfast tacos and spent the day on the beach! Christmas dinner we had a peace corps party and ate cheeseburgers :).

At COS conference we set our official leave date too.  We will be leaving the Gambia on February 14!  It will be awhile before we make it to America however.  We are traveling to Dakar – Morocco – Spain – Portugal – London and taking a transatlantic cruise from London to NYC!  From NYC we’ll fly back to Texas sometime in Mid-May!!! We are excitedly planning our trip and are equally as excited to finally make it home (although it still seems like a long ways away still). Family and friends we cannot wait to see you again and thanks for being patient with our absence and gypsy-ness :)!