Week 83: Constant Companion

I now have a constant companion and I am not talking about the ants that always seem to migrate into my house (and inexplicably my water kettle). My sister has arrived and is staying with me for three weeks. I live in a spacious but simple house where all water used needs to be carted in and out and filtered for drinking purposes. My bathroom consists of an assortment of buckets, where mistakes can have grave consequences.  There are very few people I could share this space with and I am quite pleased to say that my sister is one of them. I have been very impressed with her ability to learn the bucket system, with only a few minor misunderstandings that were quickly righted before any action was taken (NO NO! The orange bucket is the clean water bucket and the blue bucket is the pee bucket). She is now a staple at the school both in library lessons and in tea time social hour with the other teachers.

During the application process I encountered many returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs) who talked candidly about the loneliness they struggled and dealt with. I always felt badly that people experienced loneliness but scoffed a bit in my head thinking I didn’t need their warnings because I really enjoyed time alone. Ha ha ha, how naive I was, I had no idea what they were talking about. I do still enjoy time alone but I now understand there is such a thing as too much time alone and that the lonliness stems from other aspects of my life here and not just being physically alone. This has been one of the hardest aspects of my service and I am so grateful to have a constant companion for the next three weeks.

Week 82: Saying Goodbye

This week I had to say good-bye to a close neighbor and dear PCV friend. She has been a great volunteer and friend. Although I was sad to see her go there was no doubt in my mind that it was time for her to leave. This was also helpful for me to be reminded that I do not feel that it is my time to leave yet. Loosing a close friend both in proximity and companionship is still hard despite my determination that we are each making the choices that are right for us. As painful as the goodbye was I would not have had it any other way. I feel lucky to have met such an inspiring individual who is willing to take risks in order to live a full and abundant life. Although this friend will now be thousands of miles away instead of a few kilometers I look forward to how this friendship will grow and change as our respective journeys’ diverge even farther.

Week 81: Hair Cut

It was Friday afternoon and I was bemoaning the fact that I did not have any evening plans. Allowing myself to descend into the line of thinking that I was not “acting my age” and I should not be in the bush but in a city meeting new people and acting immature. When I know that even if I was in a city I would still want to spend my Friday nights watching movies and baking, I just would have more friends around. In order to fight off a pity party that I knew was fast approaching I decided I would cut my hair. About two and a half years ago I shaved my head for a fundraiser and had been enjoying the novelty of my long hair. However, recently it felt like it had gotten too long and unruly for bucket bath washing. Having shaved my head I had a catalogue of photos of how I looked with different lengths of hair that I could thumb through. After picking what I saw as a good length, I realized that my hair was actually longer than I expected and I would be able to donate the required 10 inches to Locks of Love. Roughly 1USD later, my hair is trekking around the world, hopefully to safely arrive in Florida sometime soon.  This simplified the hair cutting experience immensely and I simply put my hair in a low ponytail at the nape of my neck and took the scissors to it. Now I have never cut my hair before but I felt that I had enough hair that provided a sizable margin of error. The ponytail proved to be exceedingly helpful and provided me with a fashionably angled cut that I never could have done on purpose. I was very impressed with myself and only a little fearful that I accidently gave myself a mullet. However, the next day I had a meeting with other American Peace Corps Volunteers who were all impressed by my haircut and did not believe me when I told them I cut it myself. This immediately pacified me and made me grateful that my surroundings make me more willing to try new things.