Los EEUU

America!
I went home for a couple weeks last month. Yeah, America was still there. I guess I had forgotten some of the things I like about it. Sure, its fun here. But flat-screen hi-def plasma TVs are fun too. So much detail. I went back to the grocery store and stood there, mouth open. There was so much stuff. Thousands of kinds of cheese. I wonder sometimes if it is all necessary. But then I see real Heinz ketchup, not the low-quality overly sweet stuff they call “catsoo.” I think the food is what really got me. There is so much good stuff here. Mexican, Thai, Chinese, its all amazing. Also, bagels. Bagels and lox. Nothing better. The visit went by too quickly, but I was able to get in a visit to Boston for my cousin’s wedding (mazel tov!), be around to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday, and run around Washington, DC for a few days to finally see my name on the wall at the Tombs.
I had heard from other volunteers that coming back to a volunteer’s life was a difficult adjustment. After being in the States, with all of life’s luxuries, and even those simple things (electricity all the time?), it is hard to get back into things. At this one-year mark, which a few of us celebrated by going the beach and then me subsequently getting a double ear infection, we have to reassess what it is exactly that we are doing here. Are we accomplishing our goals, personally or work-related? Are we really that integrated in our communities? What are we actually doing here? Let’s not get started on sustainability. Right now we are just trying to accomplish something for ourselves, let alone the progress reports we are required to send in to prove that Peace Corps still deserves to receive federal funding. It does, of course, but not because we are saving the world. The stove we build that uses less wood, thus helping the environment, and has a chimney, so women don’t have to breathe in smoke five hours a day, is just as or more useful than a business presentation that will go right over the heads of its participants.
I got back to my site, then, expecting the worst, hoping for the best, and landing somewhere in the middle. Really, I guess, the best happened. It took me about a day, but I got right back into my routine. I remembered how much I appreciate what I do and what my community means to me. It definitely helped that my neighbors were thrilled to see me again and I got some free food as a welcome back gift. They know already the way to my heart. Hopefully a good omen for the rest of my service.

This is a beach relatively close to me (read: on the same island as I am)