There comes a time in every volunteer’s life where, with their last weeks on the horizon, they must endeavor to close their service. This is a process of documents and emotions which both tend to overflow and cause quite a stir. A stir that often begins a couple of months before the very end at COS (close of service) conference.
Becca’s COS conference was no exception: she laughed, she cried, she felt weird, she drank a bit, she felt less weird. The general structure of COS week is three days of medical exams which offer some flexibility. Becca had her dentist and doctors appointments in the first two days and for that had plenty of time to work out financial details and other issues. After these three days, the entire original training group (Peru 20) is loaded onto a bus and taken to a beautiful retreat center for two full days of work and information and one full night of time to spend together and say some goodbyes.
After one very long first day which Becca managed to only need three breaks to go cry/panic outside for a moment, the group congregated near the pool and enjoyed each others’ company with a few beers, a guitar, and a lot of grand conversation. It all felt oddly comfortable like this; Becca found that surrounded by her follow 20ers, she could block out the anxiety of leaving Peru and returning to a country she wasn’t sure of anymore.
The next day was equally packed and hung delicately on the edge of a personal tragedy her friend was experiencing so Becca found herself attempting to calm herself and her friend. This turned out to be no simple task. Finally, the day wound down into a final ceremony.
After some kind words from their bosses (who sometimes also felt like parents, enemies and/or friends…), each volunteer was called up and given their closing certificate. After the first name in their program was called and was notably an L-name rather than the beginning or end of the alphabet, Becca and her friend began to whisper about the choosing of this particular order.
“Must be in order from favorite to least favorite,” Becca suggested and her friend laughed. They both giggled until the second name was called: Rebecca Wadlington.
They both laughed so hard Becca nearly didn’t make it to the front of the room. And yet, wearing a dress she’d hand-stitched over the past two weeks and a grin that could have been seen from space, she received her certificate.
That evening, after all of the classes, meetings, ceremonies, and activities were finished, they all boarded the bus and road back to Lima. Becca found herself caught in a cycle of crying and sleeping but when they arrived in Lima, her friends decided there would be no more crying, only birthday fun and Mistura!
And so September 6 (though September 9 was her actual 26th) became Becca’s Lima birthday and they spent the night getting free drinks, talking and dancing, finally wrapping it all up with 1 AM McDonalds.
The next morning was time for Mistura, a huge Peruvian food festival on the ocean shore in Lima. They entered through a giant fork and immediately Becca saw signs boasting “Bread World,” “The World of Sweets,” and “Meat World.” Each section held various delights and no one was certain where would be best to start. They walked until they finally found what would definitely need to be the start of their journey: Beer World.
They spent the entire afternoon making their way from tent to tent, sharing plates of foods from all over the country. They ended with delicious chocolate brownies before piling into a taxi to head back to their hostel.
Becca left Lima that evening, boarding a bus north and back to her site, but stopped over for a day in Chiclayo to celebrate her actual birthday with cupcakes, milkshakes and amazing Lambayeque friends.
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