Last week was the COS (Close of Service) conference for the 22 PCVs from the 2017-2019 Agriculture and Health cohort who are completing their two years of service soon. Since we are scattered all over the county, it was a lot of fun to have everyone together for work and fun times near the end of our service. Peace Corps always holds the COS conference at a nice beach resort, which is the opposite of what we all experienced in our villages. It was wonderful to be pampered for a few days, while we learned about all the steps we need to complete to finish this phase of our lives.

We all arrived early Wednesday morning and began the day in a large air conditioned private room, where we received very thick COS packets. The packets contained multiple checklists, documents to be completed, and extensive instructions to help us navigate all the procedures required to be able to leave the country. The PC staff did an excellent job giving us all the materials we will need to complete our service, incorporating many fun activities, and adhering to the schedule of events for the three day conference.

One activity was to have each of us draw our personal shield, expressing our feelings about different aspects of our service. Pictured above is the shield of Health Volunteer Jessica Watson, who was the first person I met from my group. She is also from Oregon and we were sitting in the same row on the flight to Washington DC for staging. We have been able to spend a lot of time together in country, because her site is near mine, and we have become close friends. Her shield represents the four facets of her service. The upper left represents that Jessica loved the connections she developed between her village and her PC goals. The upper right is what she disliked: her frustrations working with staff in trying to understand the best way to accomplish her goals. The lower left is about challenges: for her it was trying to communicate her role to her village community, since she was the first PCV to be placed at her site. The lower right is what she accomplished: a great deal of personal growth, self love and opportunities for a promising future.

The PC staff shared lots of relevant information about the COS process, and the PCVs were also able to give the PC staff feedback about our time in service. Each staff member has a particular role to play, but it is evident that we are all working toward the same goal of providing opportunities for the people in The Gambia.

Kathryn Edwards is the Public Affairs Officer for the US Embassy Banjul. She talked about preparing for life after Peace Corps, whether it be attending grad school or entering the workforce, and how to create a resume to get noticed. She cautioned about going into debt to attain a graduate degree, suggesting exploring grad schools outside of the US where it can cost a lot less money, and could further a RPCVs international development goals. She has traveled extensively, and since I don’t need to know about grad school or employment opportunities, she shared some Australian travel tips which may help me in my next career of world traveler.

The RPCV panel discussed topics that will probably arise when we return to the US, and how to answer questions like “how was Africa or do you now speak African”. There are 54 African countries, with The Gambia being the smallest on the continent, and there are over 1500 different languages spoken. It will be our job to educate our family and friends about what life was like for us in West Africa, which is also the third PC goal of promoting a better understanding of other people to Americans. Rene served in North Macedonia and now the DMO (Director of Management & Operations) for PCTG, Myna served in Costa Rica, Anne served in Mali, Brook served in Senegal, Kim served in The Gambia, and Kelleah served in Samoa and is now the Director of Trainings for PCTG. It will be interesting to see what questions I am asked when I return to Oregon.

Mike McConnell is the director of GambiaRising and a former PCTG Country Director. GambiaRising is a Charitable Trust that has been supporting Gambian students so they can stay in school since 2008. Please visit their website to read more about their mission, or to donate to their cause. 100% of donations directly supports students. GambiaRising works with many PCVs to identify students that could benefit from their support. The original concept was to support girls, but has since expanded to include boys, but a boy will only receive support if all of the school age girls in his family are attending school.

It was wonderful to be part of this great group of young people who gave me the nickname – HOUSE MOM. Our group did earn our reputation for having fun, therefore the “Sorry For Partying” T-shirts is an apt description of my cohort. We arrived in country with 35, but 3 people decided immediately that this adventure was not for them. We are finishing with 22 PCVs, but 8 of them are extending for an additional year of service. There are a lot of opportunities to be able to continue contributing to Gambians.

The Friday night banquet was the culmination of a very successful COS conference. After being very attentive during the three days of presentations, we also lived up to our distinction for being the party cohort for our final time together. It was a pleasure to have the US Ambassador Richard Carl Paschal and his wife Jane Ellen (who is a retired Army Colonel) award us our Certificates of Completion.

My time in The Gambia is almost over, but this experience will stay with me forever.