The last week of life has been moderately uneventful, but I think that's a good thing. I spent the week getting back into the swing of things in my host community, after being gone for ten days on my site visit and for technical week. It felt like a breath of fresh air to be back in my training community with my host mama; we missed each other!
I spent a lot of time writing today already, so I'm just going to list things that happened to me this week and call it a day. Sorry this isn't as beautiful as last week's post, but I'm not perfect, ya'll.
On Tuesday, I didn't wake up when my alarm went off at 3:45 am, and if another volunteer hadn't called me I would have missed my 4:30 am bus to the office. I was up and out the door in four minutes. At the office, I had my second language interview to see how I'm doing in Spanish; I'm excited to get the results back! In the afternoon, we had a weird conversation about safe sex and it was pretty amusing to sit through.
On Wednesday, I had an interview with my CEC boss about site placement. Overall, I think it went well, and I was able to articulate what I felt was important about my wants and needs to him. I'm hoping to be placed in a site in the province of Chiriquí, but we shall find out on Friday, April 13!
I managed to do yoga or some sort of workout 3 times this week, which felt really good! One of my goals for the remainder of PST is to exercise 3-4 times/week, because I'm super lazy here and I'm getting a little chubby. The goal is to not have to buy new pants.
My host mom and I had some weird conversations this week, about the LGBTQ+ community, Peace Corps rules, "dirty words" in Spanish, alcohol (mostly wine), pregnancy, and the safe sex talk I had at the office this week. She says some really interesting things, and it cracks me up. I've learned to love her so much in the last six weeks, and I couldn't be happier with my living situation and being paired up with Mabel. All of the PCVs joke that she's the mayor of our community, because she knows everyone, is always out and about, and has people over all of the time she isn't out. She's a queen.
I was going to abstain from shaving my entire body for 27 months, but I've already caved and I attempted to shave my legs with my pocket knife this week (the armpits are staying, I like them hairy). It took me 35 minutes to shave half of one leg. I need to invest in a straight blade razor and some shaving soap, because I refuse to buy disposable razors ever again. Or I need to get my pocket knife way sharper than it is right now (although honestly, it's extremely sharp for being a pocket knife after I worked it with my hand sharpener this weekend). Mabel could hardly believe what I was doing when she came home and saw me sawing into my leg with a pocket knife on her front porch, with a jar of coconut oil at my side. She thinks I'm really weird, and everyday I give her more reasons to continue thinking just that.
I read an entire novel in one day on Friday. It was glorious.
Mabel and I cooked a lot of meals together this week; we don't talk a lot during the day, even when we're home together. When we make and eat meals though, we chat like we haven't seen each other in days. It's the strangest thing. She really loves the way I make garlic bread, and she asked me to make it three times this weekend. I gladly obliged, because I also love the way I make garlic bread.
Gnocchi with homemade mushroom marinara, apple/scallion salad, Hannah's famous garlic bread and a well-deserved glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Mabel and I went to the grocery store together for the first time ever, and while we were there, she pointed at things and had me name them in Spanish. Such a fun game! However, when I didn't know the name of something, I just made one up. She loved it.
I spent a lot of time alone this weekend, and it gave me a dangerous amount of time to reflect on things. For the first time since being here, I felt paranoid that everyone at home would forget about me or consciously move on with life without me. I worried that when I came back I'd have no friends and everyone would be annoyed with me for expecting them to still want me in their lives. I realized this was ridiculous but continued down this into a really bad spiral, so...
I went walking around my community for 2 hours by myself, and found so many beautiful places to stand and stare at the sky. I took my camera with me and shot the majority of a roll of film. I found a field of cows on my walk and talked to them about my feelings and told them all how pretty they are. It made me feel better.
This week, I started making a list of personal AND professional projects I want to do while I'm in service, and I'll share those lists after I get my site placement in two weeks! I'm really excited about some of my ideas and wonderings.
That's about it for this week. I'm realizing that while I'm integrating and acclimating just fine now, every day is still an adventure and a series of good and bad experiences. As I grow more comfortable here, my filters are falling away and I'm being more myself. However, in four weeks when I leave this community to move to my permanent one, I am sure the cycle will start over. Therefore, I'll make the most of the next four weeks with my host mama and enjoy being my genuine self before that time.
Hopefully I have something more inspiring and much more well-written for you all next time - I'll try to have some adventures next week!
Until then,
Hannah & The Cows
(we're a new vegan band, dropping our first album this summer)
