Endings

Thursday I'll be on a plane like this one heading to Abidjan

It's official, since May 9th Liberia is Ebola-free.  The country that up to now had seen almost 40% of the Ebola cases and an even higher proportion of Ebola-related deaths has gone over 42 days without a new confirmed case.  The fight isn't over, last week's sudden increase (35 new cases compared with 9 the week before) in Guinea and Sierra Leone has made that clear, but it's certainly a big change compared to a few months back when there were over 100 new cases per week.  There's hope - the end seems within sight.

Glorious evening sky

I started writing this blog to let everyone know that Ebola hadn't got me yet, and I have definitely slacked off in the past few weeks, as the threat of the dreaded disease lost a bit of steam.  Now, as it really seems to be wrapping itself up, so is my time in West Africa.  I will finish my one year contract on June 8, and thanks to all the leave I have accumulated, my last day of work was this past Friday (honestly, you can't beat the UN system for vacation time!).

I spent most of last week in Abidjan going through the check-out process.  Now I'm back in Daloa to clear out of my house and hand it over to a new volunteer who should arrive tomorrow.  I hope she enjoys it as much as I did, notwithstanding the intermittent ant problem.  Next weekend I'll be back in Abidjan, this time to head out.

I still have a few weeks in Africa visiting some spots I haven't had the chance to see yet - Botswana and Madagascar are the big ones.  But that will be it.  I'm moving to New York to work in the private sector again, and while I hope to visit this continent again regularly, my time living here is almost over, at least for the foreseeable future.  Goodbyes are hard, and although I'm really looking forward to being back with my family and taking on some new challenges at work, there is a lot I will miss.  Maybe not the deranged ants, or the bureaucracy, but the people very much.

Boys on my street pause their football game for a picture