Waiting to Prepare

Before you can build it, you've got to have all the important tools and pieces.

The weeks continue on.  I'm acutely aware of the fact that most of my emails probably come off as redundant.  Similar to the 'its so cold' broken record in January and February there really is very little happening now, other than waiting to prepare to leave Azerbaijan.

And that's the rub.  I'm four weeks out, but still not near enough to prepare to leave Azerbaijan; its just a matter of waiting, waiting for only two remaining weeks or ten remaining days before beginning the process of actually packing up.  Though there is enough desire to go home to fill an entire year, there really isn't more than a week's worth of work to do in order to be fully ready to leave the country.

Admittedly, this is only true from an extremely selfish perspective-there is still a lot of guesting to do.  Its especially important to do these last few guestings before a PCV leaves because, no matter what you've done in your service, if you fail to say goodbye appropriate your two years of work vanish and your simple thought of as rude.  But its not too much of a hassle, usually its with good food and established friends.

So these waiting weeks have seen a lot of guesting being scheduled, to make sure i hit everyone.  To Lannea's counterpart's house, to my methodologist's, to a welcoming family we've had contact with.  Final dinners with fellow volunteers, and time schedule in Baku to catch up with friends who have moved to the capital.  There's actually a lot to do in the next four weeks.

It feels good to get rid of a shirt that never truly got clean enough from hand washing or the shoes that have multiple holes in them.  It doesn't feel as good to say goodbye to the Azeri who provided the space for my first conversation club or my friend only a few months before his wedding.  And though it doesn't feel as cathartic, it is certainly more important.