Katie, my site mate, left Santa Bárbara on March 29th. She had applied for an early Close of Service date because she had finished all her projects and was ready to go home. I spent Saturday with her packing up and had dinner with her and Nineth, my counterpart, Saturday night. Sunday morning we trekked to the bus stop with her five bags (she didn’t quite fit everything into one bag as she had hoped). I then had breakfast with Nineth and headed home. I didn’t see it coming, but once I got home I started sobbing uncontrollably. I don’t know what exactly hurt so much; having Katie leave, being alone, the change of it all, or recognizing that I would be leaving soon as well. I needed something to occupy my time so I went to Nineth’s house and helped her 7 year old daughter and her friend with their English homework for about 4 hours (my gosh, when somebody wants to learn I have infinite amounts of patience). They I returned home and just cried uncontrollably for hours. It was incredible; I haven’t felt that much pain for a long time. I just felt deep anguish in my heart. The next few days were tough, I just tried to occupy my time so as to not think about how I was feeling. Then on Wednesday I headed to La Paz, to lead a training for the new Peace Corps health trainees. The training kept me busy, but I was on the brink of tears as I started. Katie was a great sitemate!
Katie in the market
Katie in the market
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