80. Conference (Day 1)

We made it!

Dan and I arrived in Maputo last night at 11PM.  We checked into our beautiful downtown hotel, and, after unloading our bags on the couch in our room, found our friends waiting for us with open arms and boxes of pizza.  

Instantly, with our bags off our backs and our feet on the ground, everything felt just a little bit better.  I even noticed that the cut on my finger had finally hardened.  The bleeding had stopped.

This morning, we had a nice shower and a nice buffet breakfast.  At 8:30AM, we started Day One of our COS (Close of Service) conference.  

We've started discussing the preliminary steps of ending the Peace Corps service, from writing our dossier to paying insurance to closing down our in-country bank accounts.  We've already started reminiscing about the past two years of service and discussing our next steps for the future.  It feels good.  It's a little disquieting, but it still feels good.  

The Hotel Rovuma in Maputo (Photo credit:  Pestana Rovuma Hotel )

The view from our balcony on the tenth floor

In the conference room

Reminiscing about service

Discussing accomplishments and lessons learned
(Here, Steph draws about her experiences in a Peace Corps cartoon)

Hanging out in the hotel room

And as for us volunteers, we're enjoying this time we have together.

This is our Peace Corps family.