Last night I was chatting for a long while with one of the students. Although Im positive he knew I was leaving, I don’t think it hit him until last night. First, a little background: one of the first days of school he was brutally sick to his stomach. I brought him medicine and water. Months later he professed that that was when he knew we were going to get along. He was the first to call me ‘mum’ and is one of the boys I can get away with patting on the back without making uncomfortable. We were chatting last night. He was not happy. I got sad. We comforted each other. In talking, I stated one of the reasons I came was to have my life enriched by the students and hopefully enrich their lives a bit. Kenai too. Kenai mostly perhaps. There a million clichés I can insert here to support that, but I think that is the most accurate and honest answer to why are you here: to enrich my life and to possibly enrich someone elses. In that sense, mission accomplished.
Tonight I am on the ‘other’ side of town to attend a USAID conference. I walk into the hotel where my conference is and I realize that even on this side of town I know 6 of the 8 people in the lobby- they are all locals and I know them all for different reasons. I participate in the conference with actual experiences, observations, and theories about Somaliland to share with the others. I am a contributing member of this society.
This evening I had a girls’ night with someone I meet on a plane and many of her NGO friends. I really, really liked them!! There was a woman from Sweden and she is based in Panama, the Bostonian based in Somaliand, and a Brit, Italian, and Somali-American based in Nairobi. We were all relatively the same age. Half of us moms. All with a sense of humor, a great heart, and a slight realistically-cynical perspective on, well, everything!
Those three, or was it four, tidbits make me sad, yet also put perspective on many things. It has been a roller coaster ride working here. Some for the reasons you’d think- slow internet, sketchy food, wearing a headscarf, etc.; but also mainly because of my boss. Tonight reinforced that for all of the conflicts I have had with the AT administration, I am not the crazy one! Or at least I am not as crazy as he would make me out to be. I have made connections independently of AT and do add value to most conversations here (at the conference). I represent the school well and, if I was allowed to do so and the boss would come along with me, I would do a good job networking the school with some major funders. Also, I really do like it here! Sure, I miss Jamba Juice and all of you reading this right now, and movie theaters and green curry with tofu, but I have started to find my own niche and a decent work-life balance, as much as is possible living at a boarding school in a fairly removed village. I am not ready to leave.
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