September 16

September 16, 2010
Been in my village for 2 ½ weeks now. It’s definitely overwhelming at times, but awesome! It’s definitely an adjustment to the pace of life. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, our first three months at site are called an “etude,” or study. We don’t start projects yet, our job is to get to know our community and integrate into it. What is means is a lot of sitting around just hanging out with people. Which in the US would be lazy, but here it’s productive and important work. I’ve learned how to play 2 of the card games here. They are not very discreet cheaters here. But I take part in that too… The onlookers who have seen everyone’s cards will occasionally tell me which cards to play. I also do the bridge shuffle, which everyone is amazed by. I told my family, after 2 years, I’ll be fluent in Bissa and they’ll be able to shuffle like me.
One of the highlights of my days are my walks. Instead of biking the 2 km to the CSPS, I like to walk. It gives me a chance to greet my neighbors and meet people along the way. It’s so funny because every day, people ask me where my bike is and if my bike is okay. (I had a flat the other day, there was a hole by the pin that couldn’t be patched, so I had to take it to the mechanic to put a new pin in. Of course, it was a process that at least 10 people were involved in helping me, whether it was insisting that I bring my bike to the mechanic, or helping my find the second mechanic at the marche who could replace the piece. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the help a lot. There’s no way my bike maintenance skills were to par here. But I’ll feel so not self-sufficient.) Anyways, I find it funny that people who are in general so unconcerned with time and generally less purpose-driven, always have to be productive as Americans are, find it weird that I walk to the CSPS instead of take my bike. But of course, people think everything I do here is weird…
The past few days, I’ve been helping weigh babies and pregnant women at the CSPS. Some kids are terrified of me. The other day, I was helping take temperatures of all the kids in the waiting area and this girl would not stop crying every time she saw me. It makes me really sad. But I love the slightly older toddlers who have just enough curiosity to shake my hand. Or the newborns who don’t realize I’m different. Tuesday afternoon during my walk, I stopped by the CSPS. Someone just told me to come, so I followed them. She led me to a room with a mother and her newborn baby girl, and I got to hold her! She was so beautiful and peacefully sleeping! It’s so different here. Never in the US would you just walk into the room of someone who just gave birth and hold their baby if you didn’t know them. But that’s not weird here. The whole community is family. And so am I. It’s amazing how quickly people have adopted me.
Holding the baby was also a moment where I realized how thankful I am to have been born in the US. I am so fortunate to have had some many opportunities that girls in many places never get. I hope that things change for that baby girl, but it’s still a place where too much of your life is decided based on where you are born.
Think that’s all for now… Hopefully I can get some pictures posted soon. I know it’s a weird place to see beauty, but I actually have a great view from my latrine (bathroom). Every time I go to the bathroom, I think to myself, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I actually live here!”