June 22-28: Peace Corps Close of Service Conference

This week started in my community but really revolved around my cohort's final gathering as Peace Corps Volunteers, known as the Close of Service conference. On Monday and Tuesday, I was at the colegio and escuela, respecitively. At the colegio, I did some administrative work related to my community service projects and also met with the principal and vice principal. On Tuesday, I facilitated 6 PE classes at the escuela before taking off in the afternoon for the suburb of Escazu, where Peace Corps Costa Rica hosts its trainings.

The conference itself took place from Wednesday through Friday. We received trainings on topics including saying goodbye to our communities, readjusting to life in the US, job searches, and reflecting upon 2 years of service. Lots of the Peace Corps trainings can be pretty technical, and thus exhausting, but this week's sessions were much more relaxing and reflective, which was a great way to end our chapter in Costa Rica, although most of us still have another 2-3 months in-country. On Friday night, our Country Director and his wife hosted a celebratory dinner at their residence which was a highlight of the week for sure. 



However, although the conference ended on Friday, I'm writing this blog on Sunday still in the hotel in  Escazu. That's because part of finishing Peace Corps service is that volunteers must go through a pretty thorough medical clearing. I've promised to be transparent with these blogs, so here it is - we must submit 3 straight days' worth of stool samples (to check for parasites) from Saturday to Monday, we must submit some other labs as well on Monday, and finally we also have to undergo physicals and dental appointments on Monday. 

It's been a long week, but fortunately there have been lots of fun moments in between. On Saturday and Sunday, since we weren't in trainings, I was able to hang out with my girlfriend, Keily. We went to a cool new coffee shop in Desamparados and later watched the Colombia-Portugal soccer game together. And then, on Sunday, we were also able to run together. Throughout the week, it was also great to connect with my friends in Peace Corps who are serving in sites around the country. The World Cup was the perfect backdrop: we played lots of soccer as a cohort and found places to watch the games. Although I won't hit the gong until September, when I'll formally finish my service, this week was a great opportunity to plan for that forthcoming reality. 



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