My last week at site is truly a blur. I was racing around trying to get everything packed up (if you know me, you know that packing is not my strong suite) and putting the final touches on everything at school. I couldn't help myself and kept making more and more visual aids and games for the resource room until I finally had to tell myself no more and I gave away all my magazines, markers, glue sticks, etc. And the packing and organizing was broken up with goodbyes.
I left site on the morning of Saturday, December 10th, so I'm going to back up two days to Thursday, December 8th. That night I went over for my last time at my close friend and counterpart Tamilə müəllim's house. We had delicious kabobs and she cooked chicken as well (and almost burned it, which couldn't have been more appropriate because the poor woman always has so much going on while she's cooking that I don't think I've been there once when she hasn't had to leap up from the table to run and see if some food is burning or the çay is boiling over or something). Some of her neighbors, including our other counterpart Ceyran müəllim, and our students came over and sat with us as well, so it was quite a nice party.
Tamilə müəllim gave me this evil eye as a goodbye present to protect me always.
Next was Friday, December 9th, where Tamilə müəllim and other teachers (including her incredible husband Yolçu müəllim) worked really hard to organize a huge going away party for me. It was complete with a videographer, just like they have at all the toys (weddings), to film it! All the classes made beautiful cakes so we had a lovely tea while everyone got up to make speeches and some of the students gave me little presents. There were some tears, especially when Tamilə müəllim forced my mother (who is also a teacher at the school) to get up and speak. And the whole thing culminated with me making a speech but, just as I predicted, I could barely get a word out because I was crying so much. And it was the talk of the village that my speech (and party in general) made several of the male teachers and directors cry too.After that party at school, I had an all afternoon party at my house where I received various guests who wanted to say their last goodbyes. The highlight of the evening was when I got to walk over into the neighboring village, Xatınlı, and bring their new volunteer, Andrew, over my house to meet my family, students, and Tamilə müəllim. He will be serving at Xatınlı School (which is about a 5 minute walk from my house) but he has agreed to help out in the resource room at my school and my students are surely going to force him to work with them in addition to his own students. It was kind of a relief that I wasn't expecting to be able to pass the proverbial torch like that. I had to work really hard to convince Peace Corps to send a volunteer to Xatınlı and I think I made the right call and Andrew is going to do a really awesome job there.
I only slept an hour and a half my last night because, although I swear I had been diligently packing and going through all the stuff in my room all week, of course there was always more to be done (little things like writing down the directions for ibuprofen that I was leaving behind for my family or putting photos on disks because I wanted to wait until the last possible moment). My sisters tried to stay up with me and didn't quite make it but my mom went to bed only 15 minutes before I did. I miss her so much. The good thing about only sleeping an hour and a half is that that is pretty much exactly how much time it takes to heat a tank of water to take a shower at my house! So I turned on the hammam (shower room) before I went to sleep and when I woke up everything was all ready for me! I was able to take one final shower before getting ready for the hardest part yet, actually saying my goodbye.
My room as of about 12:30AM.
They said it couldn't be done, but I proved them wrong!
They said it couldn't be done, but I proved them wrong!
The thing to realize is that I was leaving so much stuff for my family that the room never looked completely packed even when I left!
The marşrutka was coming to pick me up at my house so I had told everyone that they were welcome to come and see me off. This meant that I had a whole crowd of little students and teachers to hug and I was crying long before the marşrutka even arrived. I hugged all of them and then my family and finally my mom and got on the marşrutka. It was a horrible, unbelievable sadness and I don't really want to describe it more than that because I'll just cry again.
So I was off to Baku. I got to spend a few days there, seeing the doctors and various staff, having final meetings and signing tons of papers. I also got to say more goodbyes because, while my site was in Tovuz, I had developed really close friendships with some ex-pats living in Baku from all the times I had to come in to buy books or go to meetings, etc. Trust me, the goodbyes were just never ending! I got on my plane at 4:50AM on December 14th and that was that. I said my final goodbye to Azerbaijan.
Should I end it on that last, sad note? I guess not.
After many very depressing hours of travel (where I mostly slept because, as I think you saw, I didn't sleep much my last few weeks) I arrived in Boston and found my wonderful welcome party of my mom, dad, and Grandma Pat. They were decked out with signs, balloons, the whole nine-yards. They brought me home where I'm having a really hard time wrapping my mind around everything. I simultaneously feel like I was only gone for a semester at college and like I have been gone forever. Everything seems normal, but then I can't remember the names of the streets in my neighborhood, or how to get to the mall, and I basically wanted to give up on the TV the minute my mom started trying to explain that we were in the 800 channels because that is where the hi-def is! But I'm getting used to things and eating more than my fair share of the food around this house. So far my little brother Jimmy is home, my mom and I went and picked him up from school the other day. He's the only member of my immediate family who didn't get to visit me in Azerbaijan so I was really excited to see him. My older sister Naima came home yesterday and then we only have to wait for the final piece of the Farrell/Bloomquist puzzle, Miss Kimberly to come in just before Christmas. And then, I am very proud to say, our family will all be together for the first time since the summer of 2008. :)
I'll leave you with that, a much happier ending!
Ahh...what a great welcome home!
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