Goodbye, Coady

So here it is, my last day in Antigonish. I am moving to Rwanda in two days. I'm sitting here with my room mostly packed up, drinking a cold beer and just generally wasting some time not thinking about the fact that I'm moving to another continent.

My dad called me last night, which was the highlight of my night. We had our big send-off last night as well, out at Crystal Cliffs, which is a beach property owned by STFX. It was alot of fun, and the food wasn't even that bad for once. A few speeches, all of us interns sang a song, and we got our Coady pins. The best part definitely came after- dancing to African music with tons of the Coady participants.

So last night was nice, but it was also the start of the goodbyes... which I didn't realise I wasn't ready for. This whole experience so far has been about learning to walk away and say goodbye. There were a lot of hugs and kind words from a lot of the participants, and it was nice to know that they enjoyed getting to know us as much as we enjoyed meeting them. Today started the goodbyes with my fellow interns, which I definitely am not ready to do. We had our final class this morning tying up loose ends. We ended by writing ourselves letters, and notes to each other for encouragement; they'll be sent out to us around the halfway point in case we need a little extra reassurance. Then we did a really neat exercise with candles, where we'd light the candle of the person next to us and say what they'd brought the group. There were definitely a few tears at that point. I've said goodbye to two of the interns and there are still so many left... Today might be a bit rough, but I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend in Halifax... Two whole days without a schedule to follow! It'll be nice to have a bit of a break before leaping headfirst into this African adventure.