It had been a rough six months. Actually calling it rough was sort of like calling the Cold War a brief misunderstanding. She’d felt so many emotions in such a short stretch she wasn’t certain even the highest trained psychiatrist would have been able to keep up. And finally, just when she’d hit a breaking point, just when everything was too stagnant, just when she was ready to bail on everything and fly home (if nothing else so she’d finally get to see Star Trek in English), it all shifted. Though, she’d already explained that part.
After a couple of weeks, Becca was still overwhelmed but overall pretty darn happy. She was organizing projects to teach rural mothers about nutrition and early childhood stimulation, to create and manage groups of youth sexual health promoters, to work with a group of 10-11 year old girls playing volleyball and talking about girls empowerment, to organize a monthly conference for English teachers in her district...yeah she had some work ahead of her. Things were looking up.
What she hadn’t accounted for was that her site-mate, Lily, might not be having the same experience. It was too easy to forget that people are different, they react different, they’ve been through different experiences, and they want different things. Lily’s call that Friday afternoon was a surprise but it really shouldn’t have been. She’d been offered a job, an amazing opportunity in the United States and she’d taken it. Becca knew right away that this was best for everyone; Lily hadn’t been happy, she hadn’t been able to do the work she wanted to do and that wasn’t fair, she needed to do what was best for her. In turn, Lily’s departure would mean an easier time for Becca in the community as well. But even though logic said it was all perfect, Becca felt that familiar goodbye feeling in the pit of her stomach.
This wasn’t like high school graduation where she’d never said a big goodbye so it felt like the end of the world - Becca had been through her share of goodbyes. That didn’t make it easy. She got to spend a couple of days with Lily and then wished her well that Sunday afternoon as Lily left for Lima where she would catch a plane back to the US.
When Becca returned to site that Sunday night it felt different but still the world kept spinning.
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