I keep thinking about our last day in our town. We packed everything up, all 1000 kilos of jebenas and other things and we stood in our empty house. I shouldn’t call it our house, it was our home for two years and it felt like a home. Our family that we lived with for two years brought us injeera with shiro for breakfast and a chair because the house was empty. They just stared at us as we ate as we ate holding back the tears of the inevitable good byes to our little sisters and brother. This house, this town, this family that we lived with two years and now we have to say good bye. It all felt very surreal. We have so much love for Mayknetal and we wanted to make sure that everyone knew that. We took two weeks to go around the town and say good byes and let people know that we would be leaving, but this time it was final, for now.
The night before as we were packing in the dark, we had a knock at the door and it was a large group of our students that we had just returned with from our summer camp. They came to give us gifts and hugs and cry. Saying good byes is important. Telling people how much you love them and that they mean a lot to you is important. It was so great to see them and just spend the last moments with this future leaders of Ethiopia. We were also lucky that on that last day we were taking students to another summer camp which would be our last week in Ethiopia, as well. So anyways, we ate our injeera in our empty house. Then the van came to pick up our luggage and the doorway of our home for the past years was filled with all of our friends and neighbors. We were so grateful that we got to hug them, kiss them and tell them we loved them and would never forget them as we went away to the main road to meet the van, which was waiting with our students. As we walked to the main road, we had a parade with probably 50 of our favorite friends. They held our hands and asked to come with us. They told us to stay and how much they loved us. I walked slowly to savor this last moment with this amazing community which I love so much and has given us so much. After our long procession to the van, we arrive to find more people waiting to say good byes. Our compound sisters were there crying and we hugged them probably 100 times with tears streaming down our faces. As I write this, I am crying with joy of all the times we had together and with sadness that I cannot see their beautiful faces smiling at me as I open the door in the morning or come home after a long day. There were so many emotions, thinking of all of the memories, all of the hard work, all of the successes and failures, all of the friends and holidays spent together, all of the funny mishaps and language struggles, the first time we came to Mayknetal and our family cooked for us because we had nothing, all of the hot days sitting in front of the fan, all of the Saturdays at the markets, all of the classes with our amazing students, all of the tagaminos and millions of injeeras consumed, all of the cups of coffee served to us, ALL of this came to in a wave of gratitude. At this moment I felt like the luckiest person in the World to be able to have had this town, this experience with these amazing people.
We have nothing but gratitude. We are grateful for all of the patience that everyone showed us and the millions of questions they answered for us. We are grateful for the Peace Corps and the staff of the Peace Corps Ethiopia and all of their countless hours they work to make this such an impactful program. I am grateful for the support of our fellow volunteers. We are grateful for each other that we grew stronger and closer through the ups and down. Most of all we are grateful that Ethiopia allowed us the huge responsibility and privilege of sharing their culture with us, allowing us to work with their children and accepting us into their community, nationally and locally. I think about Ethiopia every single day and I have told my students many times that I have left a big piece of my heart in Mayknetal, and I mean it. So thank you Mayknetal and thank you Ethiopia for being such a special place and for allowing two ferengis live in your community and I cannot wait until we get to return because I need to eat injeera, right now. See you soon. Bitaimi ifatikum, bitaimi!!!