2/16/10 COS Conference

Three months and three days.

In three months and three days, my stage will close our service. We will have a short ceremony, sign our names and stamp a book, and with this “Stamping Out”, as it’s called, we’ll transform from PCVs to RPCVs. (Even though most of us will take our time returning to the US.)

Our replacements have been notified, and are packing their bags, saying their goodbyes, and preparing to begin this cycle again. Some of them may even be reading my blog, having discovered it in their preparations to come to Morocco. (Hi!)

I’m in Rabat, where we’ve assembled for our COS Conference, as it’s called. A three-day series of talks and workshops and discussions to prepare us to finish our terms here. Of the 60 of us who arrived in Morocco 2 years (less two weeks) ago, 44 are still here.

We’ll trade stories from the past two years: our successes, our failures, our funniest moments, our fondest memories – as well as the things we wish to forget.

We’ll hear from RPCVs living in Morocco, and learn about the paths their lives have taken since their own service, whether here or elsewhere.

We’ll get career advice and tips for managing “reverse culture shock” – that jolt from returning to America and seeing it again with new eyes.

It’s time to shift our focus from our service in Morocco to the rest of our lives. How will we take everything we’ve learned, experience, shared, and lived over the past two years, and use it to further the mission of the Peace Corps – world peace and friendship.

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things…