A birthday present to myself − 16 December, 1994
The English teachers in Uzbekistan 1 were supposed to remain in country for two and a half years - 3-6 months longer than the typical Peace Corps service. But in late November 1994, the Peace Corps staff decided that our group was too disruptive, and decided to offer us an early exit with no penalty.
The way I figured it, I was about 3 seconds away from being "wacky-vac'd" which is where they evacuate you from the country for medical reasons, on the medical reasons are that you're going crazy. And I was trying to decide if it would be better to be wacky-vac'd or to leave on my own terms when they called a meeting with the TEFL teachers. We were told we could leave on December 16th (or maybe the 15th, but since the 16th is my birthday that's how I choose to remember it) and maintain full returned peace corps volunteer status.
"You don't have to decide today." They said.
But I was already signing up.
I think when they saw I was willing to leave early, they decided not to evacuate me. I still kinda wonder if they should have, but alls well that ends well.
