I am just about to hit the point in my Peace Corps service where I’m the ‘old group.’ The one-year marker is rapidly approaching, and the ‘senior group’ just had their Close of Service conference to determine when everyone takes off (and for me, one year down, one plus a few months to go!) and the ‘new group’ will be arriving in less than 4 weeks.

We finished out first year of service off with the All Volunteer conference held in Ho, Volta Region (my regional capital). About 130 Peace Corps Volunteers who live all over Ghana came together to catch up, have pool parties almost every night, step back in time and go to Prom, compare all our talents or lack there of, and possibly learn something during the day sessions of the conference…. just maybe though. It was a chance to hear what projects people are working on, see what crafts their villages are making, and an opportunity to congratulate Peace Corps Ghana on 50 years of continues service (yes, Ghana is the first ever Peace Corps Country, and Peace Corps Ghana has served for 50 uninterrupted years)!

As the one-year maker creeps up on me I thought I want to write about what my country director reminded us in our April News Letter (that I got in May). Reality has probably set in (yes it has)… the honeymoon is over (most defiantly), and the question to stay or to go can only be determined by us (just has that conversation with myself)… but he asked us to think about how far we have come in the past year. Think about how much we’ve learned, what once were challenges now seem like a meager bumps in the road. We all came to Ghana so hopeful that we could change the world, but again he reminded us that we now probably understand the reality: we may not be able to prevent teachers from sleeping with students, we may not be able to stop committee members from chopping (team used in Ghana when someone takes the money for their own personal use) money, and we may not be able to convince our villages to throw their trash away. But at the same time we now realize that to help Ghana it may mean to help just one person. Influence that girl that she is smart and can go to college. Or to help the small children learn about other vegetables that they can grow and possibly sell. Help to get the few women in your compound on birth control, because you know if they have their 8^th child they might not stay alive to raise it. He reminded us to start small, and our return will be big.

“After successfully completing this worthwhile experience, nothing will ever seem quite as hard as it used to be. After all, if you can poop in a hole at night while shivering with a 103 temperature when your torch is not working, very few things back home will seem insurmountable.” (I think that says it all.)