but I can’t reach the phone from my chair.
So far, everyone I have talked to in country has been amazed by the amount of nothing we all do. I recently was with a RPCV (what you are called after service) and asked him: Do you remember sitting around a lot in the first 3 months? Danny’s reply “you mean the first two years?” really sums it up. Recently on vacation in Vatomandry it became a running joke and spawned some new Peace Corps motto suggestions:
Might as well, got nothing else to do.
How long have we been sitting here?
I was going to do it, but then I didn’t.
Doing nothing never looked so good on your resume.
We all thought we were self motivated people, but now none of us really seem to want to do anything. Perhaps it is just an adjustment to the pace of life here. We have slowed down, but it still seems a little awkward. Maybe because everything we have tried to do so far has just not happened or failed. I could teach 16 hours a week, but the school hasn’t given me a schedule yet. Guess what I do with all of my free time. Nothing productive. I have been playing guitar, and running (not today because of the mysterious and painful bite on my foot), but I have been doing more sitting around than I ever thought I could. Here’s my final submission for new mottos: It is amazing what you can get used to.
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My personal experience as a PCV was an exponential curve of work. It started with very little but as time went by I got busier and busier until I had to cut back. But not all of it is sit down learning or hands on work alot of it is cultural exchange, conversations, meals and time spent with locals. It may not seem like a 40 hour American work week but the impact you can give a foreigner just with the opportunity to talk with an educated American is very valuable for them. It would be helpful for you to redefine the word ¨work¨, I think you and your fellow PCVs will understand this more as time goes on but your readers won´t. It´s a shame the RPCV in your story didn´t.
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