Adventures in the Peace Corps
Youth Development in Grenada, West Indies
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined." --
Henry David Thoreau
"Service is the rent we pay for being, It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time."
--Marion Wright Edelman
"The fruit of love is SERVICE. The fruit of service is PEACE" --Mother Teresa
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Quotable Moment
While escorting one of my first grade students to the office after she fell outside and cut her hand and knee:
"Mrs. Peterkin (principal), can I borrow the First Aid kit to clean up Abby?"--ME
"It is somewhere out there on the shelf, but it's probably empty"
Oh the challenges....
Sunday, September 11, 2011
You Know You're a Peace Corps Volunteer When...
You shake out your shoes for bugs and spiders before putting them on.
You have only one functioning house utility at a time. Either the water is off, the electricity is out or you've ran out of cooking gas.
Your alarm consists of birds chirping, roosters calling or goats screaming
Air-conditioning comes in the form of high velocity fans.
Only one electronic can charge at a time because your adapter sparks.
You go nowhere without your Nalgene water bottle
Ants in the kitchen cause you to curse at them.
You've read more books in the last 3 months then you did in all of high school.
Marriage proposals are second nature.
Bugs are the size of small rodents.
Laundry takes all day and depends on if rain is falling.
You eat Ramen for two days so you can afford a beer on Friday.
Most of your friends are under the age of 12
You're best meal of the week comes from your landlord on Sundays.
You talk to the green lizards in your house.
You stare when you see a white person you don't know.
You end your long day with a beautiful sunset.
You talk about bowel movements when around other PCV's (and rate them)
Receiving a package in the mail is like Christmas morning (and you hide the contents from other PCVs)
You only buy as much groceries as you can carry home.
Being asked to hold a small child on the bus isn't unusual.
You carry your own toilet paper to school.
You become a hoarder of anything that can become a project (toilet paper rolls, boxes, bags, bottles, etc)
You curse the U.S. Government if they don't pay you on time.
You hate Peace Corps trainings, but go just because they feed you lunch.
Ants in your drinks/food become an added source of protein.
You can fall asleep on a bus ride, squeezed between large adults.
Your lifelong best friends were government issued.
You're students ask you why you are white and you respond culturally appropriately "because Jesus made me that way".
You match your sweat rag to your outfit.
You love when friends visit from the States, because they bring American food.
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