Talk some sense into me, please!
I've had crazy thoughts of extending my service lately. Last year I would've sold a family member for a trip to the US, to get to a sushi restaurant, a grocery store, a school with pencils. I came to realize that you trade one set of annnoyances (scraping windshields, junk mail) and joys (New England hikes, pubs) for another....I'm not sure I really want another year of walking down the street to screams of "toubab" and popping out of the crowd like a headlamp on a dark village night. I could live without neighbors believing that I'm a doctor who can miraculously cure a clawed hand or dissolve a goiter with the touch of my finger. The thought of another year of poking peanut sauce and rice into my mouth almost makes me angry. On the other hand I have this sense, just as time winds down here, that I may be just getting started here, that there's so much more to do. I love the little successes here, Ebi's reading coming along, Sibo writing her name. I'm finding out how great it can be to be here in this chaos and still feel like myself. Staying: a powerful, distracting, and altogether illogical thought, so someone please talk me out of it.
posted by mchughtie at 12:58 PM
10 Comments:
Don't do it, don't come back to America....as someone who would give anything to go back to THe Gambia - take it all in, cherish every moment of the crazy, hot, frustrating life that is PCTG. Just think of me in school with below zero temperatures and snow on the ground, what I woudn't give for the days of sandals and skirts, hearing "Mariama, Mariama" from small children, sending small children on errands, frozen wonjo from a bag, making fresh peanut butter, and lazy afternoons sitting under a tree with friends....
Peace,
Kim Knowle
Don't do it, don't come back to America. As someone who would do anything to be back in The Gambia, make the best of your time, cherish the joys and challenges and craziness of life that is PCTG. Think of me in below zero temperatures with snow and sitting in school, oh how I miss the days of frozen wonjo from a bag, sandals and skirts, making peanut butter, sitting under a tree with friends, hearing "mariama, mariama" from small children, sending small children on my errands, and sitting outside at night with the family under stars....
Peace,
Kim Knowle
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I like the idea of you not wanting to leave. That's good. I can't help but remember you noting the time limit of a peace corp service as one of the positive things about peace corp service, but I guess things may be different.
It's really good to think you can continue doing what you are doing for another year, and that will be a positive year.
If you extend your stay, will it be indefinite, or for a term? And if it is for a term, what makes you think it will be more appropriate to leave at the completion of the term?
I think that it's good that there's a time limit. I would never stay indefinately, wouldn't want to. But there are a lot of things that I've begun to understand about the people that I'm working with that I never would have known just from someone telling me. I also think that one more school year would give me the chance to see if any of the ideas I've worked on with teachers really come to fruition. I'd also like to see the kids in my compound get a little stronger at reading. I guess the real question is whether I can let go, and part of me wants to let go right now, or to let myself hang on to this for another year.
Colleen
I knew that this was going to happen...I miss the heck out of you yet wonder when will you make it back there again? The windshields will remain frozen and the mountains have yet to crumble.
Well, I guess the best thing is to say I think you should stay the extra time. I suppose I could say something really profound, like you'll be continuing to enrich your life with an experience unparalleled in the States....but really I'm thinking it will give me more of a chance to get out there and see it for myself!! On the other hand, I do miss you and I have probably made more trips home to Western Mass this year than any year on record and you haven't been around which has been disappointing.
Hi Colleen
Looking at your blog. If you stay for another year I would probably come to the Gambia again. I've got the shots and Visa allready. Besides I have nowhere else to use my 19 Mandinka words!
Dad
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