I know it has been a few months since my last posting, but there hasn’t been all that much to catch you up on. Things for me here really slowed down in the winter and it was definitely the period in which I felt the most isolated and lonely. After all the holiday parties were finished life in the village slowed to a crawl from its normal meandering pace. To be honest I live in a village of 700 people so it’s never going to be life in the fast lane here, but there were a few times when I had to really think to figure out the last time I had left my host family’s house. I mean other than going in the backyard to get to the shower room or the outhouse there were times when I didn’t actually leave my house for three days! Work really slowed down because I wasn’t holding club meetings while school was closed for the holidays and I worked from home a lot which was nice because I had the luxury of working in my pajamas, but eventually it got to the point where I needed to put on some real clothes and do something. It’s like I fell into this hibernation state and my world really didn’t extend beyond my room – I had my computer, magazines, books, snacks from America, movies. Now I should have known that this was going to be my biggest challenge with winter because succumbing to this sort hibernation isn’t exactly new to me. I mean during finals in grad school I only left my apartment to go to the grocery store and when I did I prayed I wouldn’t run into to anyone I knew because I looked a hot mess! I’m a nester – but after too long my nest gets messy, cluttered, and a little gross.
It’s a very good thing that spring time is beginning to emerge because it has given me the motivation to emerge from my winter cocoon and engage with the world around me again. The people in my village have also begun to emerge from their self-imposed winter hiatus – the children can be heard laughing loudly as they play outside at the school and everyone is beginning to go out into the fields and orchards to prepare for the spring planting season. I’ve started walking back from town to my village after my class instead of taking the bus to spend some time in the fresh air and sunshine.
With the changing of the seasons my work has also begun to pick up. At the beginning of February I attended a Peace Corps conference on project development and management with my new counterpart, Ruzanna. This was the first thing for us to work on together and it was a great experience. It allowed us to discuss what we wanted out my service and what the community’s needs and desires were. She works in the mayor’s office and has lots of useful connections and experience working in the village. She is a middle-aged widow with two teenage children. She works very hard to support her family and even though she already has so much work to do she has graciously volunteered to work with me. She had already become an invaluable resource to me, helping me further integrate into my community.
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