How I denounced my US Citizenship or simply, quit the Peace Corps
January 20th, 2006 by Sarin
A day by day account of my final days of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. 
29 December
Wake up and after pondering for about 3 hours, and for the first time, felt excited about leaving. Went through rest of day with the impression of leaving, and started making my phone calls to friends at night.
30 December
Take unofficial day off of work and nobody seems to notice. While at my counterpart’s house later on that night, I tell him and my best friend (his nephew) that I am leaving early and cited that 1, I needed time to relax and learn about myself and my family considering my young age, and 2, I felt a slave under Peace Corps.
Over the next 3 days, I started receiving phone calls from those on my island that I have not been able to get on the previous day.
31 December
New Years Eve, one of the worst days ever. Only thing important was the e-mail I sent to my family notifying to be on the lookout for another e-mail detailing my flight information home.
Mother calls me later at night and bitches me out for my not so feasible solo trip to Cambodia with my Peace Corps money. I stay firm with my choice and she agrees that I should at least come home. Phone call ends, I get pissed off, go for a walk… and later head to church with my Nigerian friend.
1 January
Use day to move, clean out my office at the youth center, and start lugging all my books into boxes to be returned back to Praia. Start packing clothes into luggage and start “living out of one bag”. Watch some videos on my laptop before making the big call the next morning.
2 January
Unfortunately, nobody told me of the observed New Year’s holiday. Nobody worked and I couldn’t even go to the bank. So, took a day off and couldn’t find anybody to hang out with since everybody took a day off too.
3 January
Make the big call in the morning, and while waiting for more call backs, took advantage of time to head to bank to withdraw some money to pay my phone bill. Director calls back around lunchtime, and encourages me to think it over for a day. I cave in and give in to the benefit.
4 January
Still focused and unchanged, make the last call to finalize my decision. Start organizing my luggage, boxes of books and PC bike to be stuffed into a hiace later. Say my last goodbyes to my local friends and received many thoughtful gifts. Some of them started to get teary eyed and I was just as sad to leave them. I waited about a half hour for a gift bottle of local grogue. Acquire a hiace, place all my goods inside and take the final hour long drive from Calheta to Praia to store my goods at the transit house.
Head to the office later and conducted my final interviews with directors, and step 1 of medical exam. Blood drawn, TB test planted, and complete physical including the whirlybird. Also instructed how to collect 3 stool samples in a container no bigger than what you would get for a small cup of soup. Great. Take advantage of free internet and get to work on my final Description of Service. Obviously I haven’t don’t too much, but mentioned every task I did under the youth center. Get back home to the transit house to enjoy hamburgers at Café Benfica.
5 January
Close out medical exam. Step 2 of medical exam, go over paperwork, and remain glued to the internet. Head to have a beer with Jess and head to her place afterwards. Night falls, and enjoy a chilly dinner with the rest of the Praia crew. Party splits and then run into a friend from the embassy and well, head to a bar for more drinks and live music. Another friend from the embassy is already there, and well he buys us 4 rounds (with I downed in less than an hour). My quick buzz helped me to bed on the transit house cuz I was too lazy to make it to the bed.
6 January
Maid walks into the house and gives me a good morning wakeup call. Head to a restaurant for an omelet and then make final visit to PC office. Finalize all papers, and receive about $100 for an allowance for the next 2 days. Glimpse at my airplane tickets and start stressing out. I would start to fly out tonight at 6, but wouldn’t make it home till Sunday morning and no layovers. Say final goodbyes and head back to the house for final packing and a fast meal. Run into Jonah who was back from Lisbon and then finally headed to airport.
Here is where the fun begins.
I flew from one island to another, to connect to Lisbon, Portugal. I knew that once I got into Sal, around 7pm, I should give Robert Wharton a call because apparently everybody passes through him and has a beer. Haven’t seen Robert Wharton since Swear in and he bought me those beers that he said he owed me and had the best pizza in the country. Start pounding water around midnight to cure my early hangover and head to the international airport to do some shopping. Great airport, btw.
7 January
2am boarding time for a 4 hour flight to Lisbon. Honestly don’t remember too much of the flight besides the kid screaming next to me. Arrive into Lisbon at 7am, exchanged money, and then passed right through customs to breathe my first breath of European air. Start indulging into Westernization by browsing through a bookstore even though they were all in Portuguese. Waited for the city bus and bought a day pass for only 3 Euros!.
Headed towards the town and got off towards the top of the downtown area. Picked up a few maps and, but was struck as to how dead and silent the city was (nobody goes out before lunch it seems). I enjoy the scenery, take some pictures and arrive at the shore. I start to get really ambitious and decide to walk to the Belem district where the 25 de Abril bridge (this was a really dumb idea as it took more than hour).
After an hour of walking, I convinced the clerk at the monument to the discoveries that I was student and climbed 15+, I repeat 15+ flights of stairs to get to the top of the monument just so I can get the best view. The monumental pain wasn’t worth the monumental view. Apparently there was an elevator, but I’m too cool for that.
Took more pictures, and decided on lunch. Didn’t think my Euros would go far so just settled on McDonalds (which gave me a stomachache, but surprisingly good service) and regretted not getting a beer that included the Super Bock holiday glass. Took a cable car back downtown and was amazed at how full the downtown shopping area was. Did some browsing, tried looking for an internet café and took a nap at a mall. At that moment, figured malls weren’t a bad idea and was the best place to people watch. So I figured I head to Columbo, which claims to be the biggest shopping mall on the Iberian peninsula.
BENFICA WHAT!!!
Took the very clean Metro which lead me directly to the basement of the mall and then headed up to a great view of Benfica stadium. Life accomplishment, I tell ya.
Checked out the mall, which so far is the biggest mall I have seen yet (even though I rarely leave New England), and my jaw just dropped when I laid my eyes on the indoor roller coaster on the top floor of the mall. Enjoyed some Chinese food at the food court (imagine a Cambodian dude ordering Chinese food in Portuguese) and had my LAST SUPER BOCK EVER. It even tasted skunky just for me. Looked at the money I had left and tried to look for a souvenir but time ran out before I had to leave to board my flight.
Waiting at the Praca de Comercio, got treated to a light show and a lit up Xmas tree while waiting for the bus to the airport. Ride to airport was a lot longer than I remembered and went right to boarding. Got seated and tried to start a conversation with the guy seated next to me. He claimed not to know any English so I got started in Portuguese, and then he wouldn’t shut up. He even started talking in English even though he claimed not to know any, but it was too much too late.
Started getting sick from being outside too much and from the horrible fast food I had eaten. Downed some pills and slept or stayed still for the next 4 hours. Afterwards, killed the battery on my iPod before getting close to the states. For some reason, they shut the lights off as we approached NYC and I could tell it was NYC because I could see the buildings that make up Downtown and Midtown. Plane landed and felt great relief to be back on American soil.
Made it through customs, but surprisingly at 10pm, Newark International airport was absolutely dead. Tried asking desperately if I could check my bags in early for my 7am flight, but the place was a ghosttown. So here I was, in an empty airport with all my luggage, and the next bus or train to NYC wasn’t until 5am, so…. I slept on top of my luggage until 4am.
8 January
I figured it would be dumb of me to spend 12 bucks to only be able to spend an hour in NYC so I decided to check in when the desks began to open around 5am. Before that, I became convinced that I could shove my smallest bag into my big duffel, and after fighting for half an hour managed it. It was good to see it go and after bags were checked, enjoyed walking around with no baggage.
Now at this point, I had been alone since midnight Friday, and started looking for weird ways to entertain myself. I then started talking to everybody in a faux British accent and just had a blast with it. Here I am enjoying a yuppy coffee and passing myself off like I am some rich foreigner. I still think it’s a fun thing to do.
After hours of perusing the bookstore and watching CNN on plasma tvs, finally boarded on the flight to Providence.
There were only 9 passengers on the plane. The ticket costed Peace Corps $330. It would have been cheaper for me to rent a car and drive myself back to Cranston. But I wasn’t complaining, I enjoyed morning views of NYC and Cranston/Warwick on the trip home.
Back home in lovely RI, found my parents, and was still pissed off about our last phone conversation, I didn’t even greet them, I just waved them over to baggage claim (this may sound weird, but if you knew my parents, it’s really nothing). Parents mentioned how skinny I was, and then brought myself into shock in seeing snow on the ground. Got home and the first thing I did was shower… at that point I haven’t had one since Friday and haven’t seen a bed since then.
The rest is history. Enjoyed an ultimate Beirut game the first night I was back (I still haven’t slept yet), enjoyed free shots at the bar on Friday, and brought back 20 or so UNH friends to party on Saturday in Portsmouth. The partying came back, even though The Va wasn’t mentally there.
So if anybody wants to ET on a Friday, you’re most likely going to fall into this trap too. I was unfortunate to have to wait so long for a short flight to Providence, in my case. But Robert says he has seen all the ETs pass through him, as if it is a guarantee you will spend a considerable amount of time in Lisbon. If it falls correctly, you might enjoy your time. And for goodness sake, start talking Crioulo to anybody you see.
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