Ramadan Day 12 and 13

Today we broke our fasting. As we are leaving for camp, our bodies need to be well rested, and ready for the intense physical activity of running a summer youth camp. It felt weird to stop though, as my body still woke me up really early in the morning. I need to get back in the swing of sleeping through a whole night. I'm sure at camp I won't be sleeping restfully throughout the night, but it will be the result of catching campers trying sneak out... I'm great at catching them, and the first year even slept in the hallway to prevent the girls from leaving.

Yesterday was a great day for us. We had a house guest from Sheki come on Saturday night, and she stayed and did our breakfast with us at 430am like a trooper. We of course gave her the option to sleep in and opt out, but she was curious so she joined us. Farid's students finished up their final leadership project yesterday morning, and our friend and I cleaned the house in preparation for our site mate "hub day." Almost all of the site mates came this time, and we had a nice fruit buffet. Farid and I were very good, and didn't become too tempted to actually partake in eating. After our site mates left, we went in to the office to purchase our plane tickets to America! We are very excited, as we finally found tickets home, and now will be headed out of Azerbaijan with a final end date in site. In 51 days, I will be foot down on American soil. I will be home, and there not just for a vacation this time. It feels a bit bitter sweet. I'm excited that we will finish my service and then head back to Ganja, catch a flight to Naxchivan to stay with Farid's parents for two nights, then fly to Istanbul to see Farid's brothers for 2 nights, then a flight to Frankfurt, were we will layover for an entire day (this is the price you pay for cheap tickets) and then we will fly to Iceland for a short layover before landing in Seattle. For Farid, he will still have to go through secondary processing with his CR-1 visa (conditional resident visa) and he will be issued his temporary green card at the airport. The final green card will be mailed to our house withing 6-8 weeks. He will have to register for selective service, and we will then start the job search, and start applying to graduate schools. We are looking into several places, including Minnesota, Oregon, and Nevada. Right now, we just need time to adjust to life in the US again. I have been informed by Peace Corps at our Close of Service conference that I will be going through "Reverse Culture Shock" and won't always feel "at home" in the US now. I know there are a lot of things about Azerbaijan that I won't miss. However, there are a lot that I will miss too. After 3 years and 3 months away from home, it feels a bit strange to not know what comes next.