Goodbye Old Friend (Written 3/05/06)

Silao, laughing and dancing the night away!

Last night, we had a Peace Corps get together which was both a joyous occasion and a sad one at the same time. We said goodbye to our training director Silao who resigned from the Peace Corps after 27 years of service. It was just so strange to us that this man who was basically like a father to all the trainees/volunteers who have come through Peace Corps Samoa was actually leaving. I feel that we (Group 75) were very fortunate to have met him and were trained under him. He took care of all our needs and when we wanted to do something (such as go to the beach or have a movie night in our hotel room) he was always encouraging and helpful.

The dinner took place at a nice hotel restaurant kind of far from downtown Apia, so it was nice to have almost all the Peace Corps there that were in country. That just showed how important he was to all of us – not even for All Vol did we have almost all the in-country volunteers there. The actual food was provided by the staff and volunteers (I paid another volunteer to cook for me – I’m not ready for ‘primetime’ yet!) so there was definitely enough food to satisfy the gathering of people there. We then moved onto the actual ‘event’ in which every facet of Peace Corps Samoa had a part. First our acting country director, Jackie, said a few words about Silao and what he not only meant to her in her little time here but also what a great loss this was for PC Samoa. Then Cecilia (Group 73), our Volunteer President, said a few words about Silao and what he meant to all the volunteers – past and present. Skye (Group 73) then presented a well done slide show about what Silao will do in the future now that he’s left PC. Then our safety and security director (Fono) is also a singer – so he sang a song for Silao. Then staff said a few words about Silao and what he meant to them. Current Volunteers were up next and said a few heartfelt words for Silao. As a group, Group 75 told Silao that we appreciated all that he did for us during training and shared with him a few our favorite Silao moments (there were many, trust me – but we only shared a few). After this, Silao got up and said he knew this would go on and on all night (which it probably would have) and he just wanted to say thank us for appreciating all that he’s done and that’s he’s going to miss PC very much. But if we ever call him back, he’ll be there! Jackie then presented Silao with a plaque signed by the Director of Peace Corps thanking him for his long service to PC and the staff/volunteers/RPCVs gave Silao the gift of a new set of golf clubs.

In all, it was a great night of just honoring a man who basically gave half his life to one organization. I never thought that Silao would resign, but such is life. Now he can hang out with the volunteers and that’s great because he’s a great person to know. I kind of feel sad for the next training group coming in because they will only know the legend of Silao and his generosity, love and dedication towards the trainees/volunteers. We’ve not only lost a great training director, but also a great man. I could not sum up all that he means to me in the short amount of time that I knew him as a training director, the only words I could find were ‘Thank you’. Nuff said.