I just experienced the best 2 hours of my service. Last week in village I was hanging out with my friends-- a group of 6-7 women around my age. Usually I spend the hot part of the afternoon at 1 of 4 places-- my compound, my counterpart's compound or my friends' compounds. I was just hanging out, watching hair being braided and tea being sipped-- typical afternoon. My posse loves to joke around with me about how I don't have a husband. I tell them I am still a kid, which is hilarious to them because all of them were married with a kid by the time they were 23 (my age). They love to tease me about other male volunteers and say when I come in to Tamba, I come in to see my boyfriend. I don't, to be clear. It is a running joke and to be honest I don't do much to dissuade them from giving me a hard time. After all, we have maybe 5 topics to talk about and I would almost always rather be joking around than talking about how hot the sun is for the 17th time that hour. So we are just goofing around talking about boys and then the conversation went places it has never gone before. Suddenly these women opened up to me and we talked about problems they are having with their husbands, family planning, dating, everything that was a "taboo" topic a year ago. They were asking questions and were so interested and curious. No one wanted to leave to start making dinner. My sister even said she forgot that she had to cook that day because she was too busy talking! It was such an amazing moment, and I realized that this could not have happened when I first got here.
So often volunteers are really hard on themselves (myself included) because we don't see immediate results. Something that is supposed to take a month to complete can take an entire year, and as an American, it is hard to switch from fast-paced, result-driven, 9-5 lifestyle to a developing country. Granted, I haven't ever had a "real" 9-5 job, but it is still difficult to go from stable deadlines and time tables to the idea that work will be done "if God agrees." So to be able to speak to my closest friends in village-- who have gone from being people I just make small talk with, to people who actually understand me and know me and care about me-- about the things they care about is huge. It was a celebration of being a woman, sharing and understanding other women, in Pulaar no less.
I may not change anything while I am here. I joined Peace Corps with bright eyes and an eager idealism thinking I would help these people. And I did know that I would learn more than I would ever teach. But as it turns out, these women are teaching me things I didn't even know I needed to learn. I thought I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be and the kind of future I wanted to have. But I am realizing that my Peace Corps service, and honestly life in general, is about human connection. If I can get one person to maybe think twice before they have unprotected sex or eat before they wash their hands-- WITH soap-- then I will have made a little progress. But I think also forming a bond with women who I share virtually nothing in common with, not even a language, is the greatest thing I could do with these two years. And all the times I have cried and wanted to come home this past year are suddenly worth it. And even though the next day I got frustrated all over again, I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to look back on that afternoon and reconfirm this is where I want to be.
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