One Year in the books…14 months to go

One year in Peru!!! This is a bit premature given the fact that my one year mark will be tomorrow. However, I will not be able to make this post tomorrow so everyone will just have to settle for this post a day in advance. So, I thought I would look back a little on to what I remembered from one year ago. One year ago, to this day, I was still at what Peace Corps likes to call staging. It’s where you first get to meet all the other volunteers from your group. It almost feels like the beginning of some sort of reality show. It’s like how Road Rules and Real World name all of there groups, well we were named Peru 11. Upon arrival in Miami for staging it felt kind of like arriving at college freshman year. You really don’t know anyone and you don’t really know what to expect. Not knowing what to expect is kind of the charm of pre –Peace Corps Service. That first day in Miami you split up into those big groups to go out like you did freshman year of college and you make your first judgments about the people around you, most of which were probably untrue. Then, the staging portion begins the very next day with a full day of…what is Peace Corps, what are the goals, what is development, etc. After staging, you board a plane with everyone else and arrive in Peru at night time which is what the new volunteers will be doing today. As I remember, the ride from the airport to Huampani (a sort of resort outside of Lima) was interesting. Lima really looked like a poor place in the dark of the night. Once we arrived at Huampani, we were assigned rooms and finally got to rest. The whole excitement of the experience was what kept you sane during those days. That first week of Peace Corps was a great high, but then it starts settling in that you’re going to be in Peru for 2 years and 3 months!!! Plus, the house you stay in at training, in most cases, is a lot better than the house you will be in for 2 years.

Peace Corps is composed of many ups and downs. One year ago I was on a high. Right now, I’d have to say I’m in the middle. The reason Peace Corps is made up of so many ups and downs is because of the countless failures you face. Everyone arrives to Peace Corps service well aware of the failures to come. However, it remains rather difficult to put one’s head around just how many failures one will face. Up until this point, all of the main projects I have planned and tried to bring to fruition have pretty much failed which is rather hard to stomach again and again. However, many lessons are learned from such failures. One of which is that one really cannot change people by his self or herself. It takes a volunteer’s effort in addition to their community’s efforts. If the community does not provide the effort for the project, it will never reach its goals. Although one can beat his self or herself up over this fact, it really is not worth it. Many people have a problem accepting the fact that no matter how much one tries to change a person, if that person does not want to change, the person will never change no matter how much one tries. It is a simple fact of life but one that is hard to grasp. However, with the help of Peace Corps it’s one I have come to realize.

PS – A crying sheep outside my door all of last night…only in Peace Corps.