About four years ago, I made a resolution to only regret things that I've done, and not things that I wish I did. While the past two years haven't been perfect, and while I had plenty of nights where I really questioned just what the hell I was doing here, I'm glad I took the plunge. Peace Corps is by now means perfect, but I felt it offered me an opportunity to create my own experience, challenges, opportunities, and rewards. Reading through some of my old journals, I see that I'm a different person than when I left, and I'm glad for that. I've always been of the mind that I should be more concerned with where I'm going than where I am, and I'm happy to see my progress.
I guess I learned some stuff here too. I learned that during a four day storm you can dry your clothes in the oven if you're really careful, and that beans and textured vegetable protein are friends to your wallet. I also learned that boarding a plane or signing a contact isn't enough to change who you are. Wherever you go, there you are. Along the same lines, I learned that the idea that tough times build character is bs. Tough times reveal character. Then it's up to you to decide where to go from there. Building character, growing as a person, takes place incrementally over many nights, it takes an infinite amount of commitments and an endless supply of resolve, and even then requires the continual reevaluation of yourself to ensure you're heading in the right direction. When the tough times come again, then you'll be able to see if you succeeded. Someday soon I'll find out where I stand.
One of the benefits of the Peace Corps is that you get to share the experience with dozens of other people who have that similar mental defect that caused them to leave everything they had for two years of stress and dejection and cockroaches. You also quickly find nationals with the same fire inside that makes them show up at 6 in the morning for community work days or stay up to 2 in the morning organizing teaching resources. Some of the people I met here I couldn't comprehend how they manage to do what they do for an hour, but they manage to wake up every day with determination that leaves me in awe. To everyone I worked with these past two years, Peace Corps or Jamaican; it was an honor to work with you all. The experience would have been worth it just to say I served with you.
But enough of this heavy crap. Often overlooked is just how fun Peace Corps can be. Watching two goats butt heads for half an hour, joining in with a whole minibus singing Michael Jackson, watching an 80 year old woman dance in the street during carnival, or chasing the most adorable lizards out of your kitchen are all entertaining as hell. Always remember to keep it Irie.
Walk good.
-Craigery
Silly goat, you're looking for apartment "B-AAAAAA"
The fast-paced limited-spaced Peace Corps workstation.
Clothes dryer
Hehe
The Jamaican Sears' Catalog
It got a little chilly this winter
The staff prepares to grade the students' delicious final projects
Umbrellas are essential for any type of weather
Gotta be stylin' even if you're just holding a pineapple
My security system
Christmas shopping under the stars (and tarps)
Every workshop should come with a cannon
I'm smiling because I picked enough apples for 60 bottles of wine
Pint-sized kitty
Portland vending machine
Two Michiganders happy to be somewhere else in February
Hehe again
The tropical heat from the painting must be getting to us
The rare combination of cute and badass
Jamaica is a smaller island than you'd think
Hammocks: traps for lazy people
Goodnight Port Antonio, and goodnight Jamaica.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Jamaica? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Jamaica in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Melanie here! I enjoyed this piece, please email me--I have a question about your blog. MelanieLBowen[at]gmail[dot]com
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