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A deep feeling of melancholy has begun to string it’s way through my heart. Tomorrow we will have our despedida, or going-away, party and I can’t help but wonder if I will ever see some of our Filipino friends again. Anthony and I will be back in the Philippines one day (under strict orders to bring children!) and I hope that our friends will remember us the way we will always remember them. So many people have touched our lives and we could never thank them enough. Our Ate Tess is one of the greatest friends Anthony and I will ever have. She has shown us unconditional love, support, and generosity and to that we will forever be indebted. She is, and always will be, our Filipino family.
Our library project is officially finished. The finishing touches were added last week to make our library the best in the province! With a total of over 7,000 books, a stereo/CD player, DVD player, brand-new TV, mats, cushions, posters, and curtains, it is a room to be proud of. Of course, the most important part of our project is giving the students access to quality books. Even during the summer months the library continues to be incredibly popular! My favorite memories of the entire project are watching the students learn to love to read. Their passion for their books and their library will always be an inspiration to me.
I always imagined that the end of our service would be a time to celebrate. It saddens me to have the last few weeks of our service be a time of mourning for the loss of our fellow volunteer. Julia was an incredible woman and an awesome volunteer. Her passion and hard work changed many lives, including my own. Julia was dedicated to the goals of Peace Corps. She embodied the Peace Corps legacy of goodwill and friendship around the world. The common thread that binds all Peace Corps Volunteers together is a great determination to give back to the world community. Julia was a symbol of this great and nobel goal. If we are remembered with half as much love, then we can consider ourselves successful volunteers.
I could fill pages upon pages with all that I have learned in these past two years but am not sure I can write them eloquently. So I close my Peace Corps blog with this quote dedicated to the memory of Julia Campbell:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear and song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? While some see them as the crazy ones, I see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.