El Fin del Mundo

We just finished a marathon bus trip of 34 hours or so to arrive in Ushuaua, on Tierra del Fuego. We are now about 54 degree south, about the same as the lower part of Alaska up north. We are only 680 odd miles from a portion of Antarctica. Because of this, there are a number of ships here that make trips there... for a mere 10 grand or so we, oh wait, one of us could go there! There are some last minute deals to fill space, those run more on the order of 5 thousand. I have seen one for as low as a little over two thousand, but you have to wonder what the accommodations are like! It'd be fun, but I think we'll have to take a pass on this trip. If we do any big splurges down here it'll be to catch a "Sea run brown".

No photos yet to post, but Ushuaia is very picturesque so I'm sure the next post will have plenty. I think we will be staying here for four or five days, if for no other reason than to recover from the bus trip, and ready for the next! It is pretty though, and there are some smaller glaciers to visit, a national park to hike around, and a boat ride on Beagle Channel. Named for the ship Darwin was on, not small floppy-eared barking canines.

Penguins and Welsh Tea

So, I’m changing the style of the blog to keep up a bit with the pace of the trip. This means that many of the entries will be fairly quick and have some good photos, but maybe not a ton of content. I will still try to get some longer commentaries out there, but would prefer not to get behind events as they unfold.

So, with that in mind, yesterday we went out to Punto Tumbo to see the largest colony of Magellanic Penguins on the continent. It numbers over a half million birds and is spread over many hectares. 

Some of the pairs walk over a kilometer inland to get to their nest. It is quite a different setting from what you might expect with penguins. It is a scrub desert, fairly rocky and poor soils. They dig holes for their nest, some fairly deep, others more of just shallow scrapes under a bush.

The density is pretty impressive, once you start looking around you see penguins everywhere! They are very mellow, and of course here, fairly accustomed to people wandering about. So you can get very close, even get bit if you feel like it. We were lucky to arrive just after eggs had hatched, so we got to see all stages, eggs, small chicks, and some that were a bit larger.

So, after having fun watching the awkward creatures wander, sleep, fight and mate, we left and headed off to Gaiman to meet Welsh descendents and have lots of cakes and sweet things. All of it was very good. Of course, being Argentina, some of the sweets were made with dulce de leche… that stuff is a drug! We had an alfajor (the cookies with dulce de leche between) for desert last night, didn’t need anything more, super rich!

Ok, to end this, we are now waiting for our bus to Rio Gallegos, a good 17 hours on bus, woo hoo! So our Thanksgiving will be spent watching the monotonous scenery of Patagonia go by the panoramic windows of our bus! Cheers!

Thar be Whales

So, yesterday was the first of many excursions that we will be doing in the next few weeks. Excursions are the bane of many backpacker type travelers because they are not cheap! 

On the other hand, if you want to see stuff, you pretty much have to cough up the sheckles. Yesterday we went to visit Reserva Faunistica Peninsula Valdez. It is in the calm shallow waters here that the Southern Right Whale population comes to breed and raise their young.

Well, if you are going to spend money to see whales, you pretty much can’t go wrong on this trip. You are guaranteed to see them, the only question is how close. For us the answer was very close. We started off with just a few whales, close enough for pictures, but still a bit far off. In no time though we had whales and their calves on every side of the boat, as well as going under it! Now from living in California, I’ve seen plenty of grey whales, some pretty close, but never anything like this. We saw spyhopping, tail slapping, and full on breaching. Most of it right by the boat where you get a real appreciation for their size.

We also got a pretty good feel for the size difference between calves and moms, and watching the mom’s giving them “exercises” to practice breathing ect… We also learned a bit more about them because of the guides we had, another plus for excursions. Overall, the whole thing met or exceeded our expectations!

We saw other wildlife during the trip as well. Things like guanacos, rheas, and maras, all of which I will talk about in a future blog, hopefully by then I will have some better pictures. I we post one photo of the penguins though. We stopped off at a small colony nest site of Magellenic penguins. These we will see in much greater numbers on our next excursion, so I’ll post more then!

One last word on excursions; they are a necessary evil in certain areas. In our case they are a given for much of the first part of the trip. That affects our perspective of how expensive the trip is. Right now, Argentina definitely feels expensive to us and we are starting to tone down from our decadence of the first few days and look for strategies to keep things cheaper. It will be awhile however before we really know how far our money can take us. We have to bull through the first part, and get to where we have a more relaxed pace over in the Andes, and then see how the flow of money is. A ver. It is one of the major differences between travel and vacations though. In vacations you usually have more money then time, so it’s all about time management. For travel though, you have more time then money, so to do the things you want to do, everything becomes a trade off where money is the important factor.

Decadence in Buenos Aires

So, time to change themes and write about our travels in Argentina. I reserve the right to post a blog or two about our El Salvador experiences as well, I’m still working on at least one dealing with our final day in site. For now though, let move on to the first impressions of Argentina.

Wow! I mean it would be hard to pick a more different place in Latin America! For impressions from driving in on the Airport, we both noticed how clean it was! This is definitely enhanced by having arrived from El Salvador. As much as I love El Salvador and it’s people, the trash there is a constant eyesore. Here, though not spotless, it is very clean. Walking around the city there were trashcans conveniently located pretty much everywhere, and people used them.

Another nice thing was the Jacarandas, or at least I’m almost positive that’s what they are. They are acacia family trees, but with solid purple flowers, all in bloom and very abundant. In fact a description of BA wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the trees. They have a ton of street trees, and it really makes the city a much nicer place to be, more shade, and more alive seeming. We did notice a lack of squirrels though. Not sure if this is because of the high numbers of feral cats in the parks, or because squirrels actually aren’t down here for some reason.

We arrived very early, getting to our hotel around seven in the morning. Of course, no room was available yet, so we had to go out and walk around to kill some time. We walked over to a neighborhood named San Telmo. It is famous for having lots of antiques and a little park that becomes a street market on Sundays complete with Tango dancing expositions! There we found a little café and got two cups of coffee and 6 of what they call media lunas. These are small croissant things coated with sugar glaze in this case, pretty good stuff!

After going back to the room and getting settled in, we went out to do what I’d guess most travelers do on arrival to Argentina, go look for beef! We went to what passed for a non-touristy “parrilla” which means grill or BBQ, but down here it just means a restaurant that specializes in beef, and meat products! We took a seat at a small table and looked over the extensive menu. Not really sure what to do we decided to go safe and order a cut we knew we liked, “bife de chorizo” which it more or less a T-bone steak. We also ordered a salad and some red wine.

The house wine for $2 a half carafe seemed like pretty good swill to me!  The salad was good as well. It came in a common bowl so that we could share it, and it had a little bit of everything, which meant things like potato chunks, beet chunks, and egg. The steak were amazing, really more like ribeye cuts back home, but a bit larger, including more of the sirloin, more impressively, they were about twice as thick as any cut I have had back home! It was a lot of meat! It also came with bread, which would probably seem like nothing special if you came from back home, but coming from El Salvador it was amazing!

So, after that we waddled back to our hotel and let ourselves take a nap. We’d been up most of the night before on the plane, so we needed it. We got back up in the late afternoon and did a couple of tasks. The big one was going a getting our bus ticket to head south. That took a good bite out of our account. Argentina is not cheap! It may not be super expensive but it is easy to spend money here. For now at least we aren’t skimping on the food side of things. That night for dinner we got a “lomito completo” which is a huge steak sandwich with lettuce, tomato, ham and egg on it. Once again we were stuffed with meat!

The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Most of the hotels include breakfast as part of your stay. They offered a variety of fruits but most importantly “dulce de leche” to spread on your toast. To me it’s like spreading candy (very good candy) on your toast! It very, very good creamy carmel, and it’s everywhere in the land of sweets down here. We had it in a thing called an “alfajor” which is two cookies with a layer of dulce de leche between them like a cookie sandwich. We also had it to accompany our coffee later in the day as a bit dollop on a tiny cookie, all covered in chocolate! It was great, but terribly rich! The guidebook claims that per capita Argentines consume more sweets than anyone else in the world. Given the whole dulce de leche fixation, I believe it!

The following are some photos from the Sunday Antiques market in San Telmo. Note the antique bolos and stirrups.

This is the bus we left Buenos Aires in. Quite a difference from El Sal buses!

A Perfect Salvador Week!

So, what does that mean? Certainly not that everything went perfectly, because that’s not consistent with my experiences here. No the perfect Salvador week is all of the good things about El Salvador wrapped up with those things that epitomize the true experience.

So for us, this last week has come pretty close to the perfect week. We had a despidida (goodbye party) with the school on Tuesday, school graduation on Wednesday, instituto graduation on Thursday, Friday to clean house, Saturday the new volunteer arriving, Sunday to show the volunteer around, and Monday the big despidida with my association. That was the plan anyway, and it mostly all happened that way, but it was in the details that Salvador showed through.

First the despidida with the school. It was in the afternoon, and Don Israel had told Katie that she didn’t really need to say anything, or prepare a speech because that was more for the graduation the next day. We went over to the school at 3, which was when they told us to be there, and of course they were all frantically still decorating and setting up for tomorrow. We joined in helping to make crepe paper dangly things and set the chairs up. Finally around four-thirty we broke for the meal. It was the usual chicken, rice and salad that is the ubiquitous choice for “special occasions”. We ate with all of the teachers, and the members of the ACE (parents who are in charge of the school, contracts ect…). There were also a fair number of students as well.

Don Israel got up and gave a nice speech thanking Katie for her time here, then the president of the ACE, Don Javier, also got up and thanked us both for our contributions to the community and especially the kids. Finally Don Israel asked if Katie wanted to say something. So of course we had to, though we hadn’t really prepared. I don’t remember what Katie said, but I know that I quoted my boss, Rolando, talking about how hard it is to say things from the heart, emotional things, in your non-native tongue. Bottom line is we got something out to them and thanked them for our time here as well. Then Don Israel asked if anyone else wanted to say something. Carmen’s mom got up and gave us a very nice blessing, followed by Belgi and several others recounting stories of our time here. There were several requests for us not to go, but to stay. The final one was the toughest, Yensi, a five year old, stood up and in front of all of those people told us how much she’d miss us, and that we hoped we be safe on our way home. It was just the start of the sad!

The next day was graduation. This time we knew we’d be talking, and had written a few things down. I won’t go into a lot of details. Just that Katie nearly couldn’t get through her speech due to tears. Plus when Don Israel gave us our plaques thanking us for our time spent in the school and in the community, Peluche, the chucho, followed us across the stage to get his own thanks as well! The people all thought it was hilarious. After we were invited to eat with both of the graduating classes. So first we had a good beef lunch with ninth grade, then immediately followed with the chicken meal in the Kinder class. We weren’t the only ones “aprovecharing” the two meals, Don Israel and several parents ate both too. We talked to lots of people who always had to mention that we were leaving and that they’d miss us, and we should just stay. Overall a nice , but emotionally trying day.

The next day we had the instituto graduation. Here our friends Magdalena, Karina and Claudia were all graduating. It was a kind of full circle thing because on one of the first days that we were in site, so long ago, we watched them graduate from ninth grade… didn’t even know who they were then! Now it is all different and we have to be sure to take photos for each of them. We don’t have to say anything though, which is a nice break. 

Afterwards we are invited to just about every house for food! We do indeed eat a ton of food, and have lots of sad conversations, but it is also very nice because everyone is so appreciative that we came, and they are glad we are taking pictures too. Lots of hugs all around!

The last thing I will mention in this blog is the time with our family. I’m saving the big final day despidida for it’s own blog, partly cause this one is already long, and partly because those photos are still on the camera. Our family was really great this last week. The girls (Carina and Rebeca) pretty much wouldn’t let Katie out of their sight! The just spent time with us, and us with them. Lots of sad, almost crying moments, lots of practice with the different forms you can use in Spanish to say how you miss someone, lots of just quiet closeness. Good stuff, 

but tough too. We went to church with them that last Sunday and I know they really appreciated it. It was freezing, because the zona alta decided to give us it’s own special despidida and have a good strong norte, with cold temperatures (like around 45F at night)! Brrr! So of course the bus didn’t come and we had to walk the 3K to church that day!

See the rest of the Perfect Week in the next blog. I want to get this one posted now. Cheers!

Jonny Appleseed

So, how have I chosen to spend my last few days as a volunteer? It’s something we all have to deal with as Peace Corps volunteers, leaving our site. I believe that how we do it is just as important as those first few months after we arrived. Most of us came here thinking that two years was a lot of time, but many of us were really considering what would happen after. Some are planning out their grad school options and working on applications, others are doing grad school while they are here and spending their time thinking about what they hope to do when they finish. Still others hoped to find that magical answer for what job they really wanted to do. The interesting thing is that almost none of those things have to do with actually being a volunteer.

You see as well trained Americans (and I use that term knowing it is wrong) we spend a hell of a lot of time thinking about our future. Each phase of school is to get at the next one. Preparing you for college, which prepares you for work. [Yeah right, what part of work is even the faintest bit like college?] Even as we enter work we are told (at the ripe age of like 25) that we need to start planning for retirement!

I’m pretty certain I am not alone in this, but I think one of the great things about being immersed in the kind of culture we have here in El Salvador is that most of us have now seen that the now can be just as important as the future!

So what have I been doing? Well, strange as it may seem, I’ve been delivering apple trees to families. You see, one of the ideas that we had to help with crop diversification was that this climate should work well for apple trees. So, from the seeds of the apples that we occasionally ate, we saved the seeds and eventually planted them. The idea was, and is that these trees would provide the rootstock for us to graft varieties that might do well down here on to.

This means that we now have about forty small trees that we have raised from seedlings, and before we left we wanted to make sure we gave them out to various families we are close to down here. It has turned out to be one of the best ways to say goodbye to our closer friends!

I’ll take two to four trees out and walk down the street until I come to someone’s house. Go up to the open door and call out. Then I’ll be made to sit down. They’ll pull out their best chair, sit me down and we’ll start talking. These days the conversations are mainly about the hard fact that we are leaving. We talk about how they will miss us, how we will miss them. Simple things mostly, recounting some of our favorite times.

It’s an amusing insight to realize how they will remember very specific smaller instances of our time here that made big impressions on them. It feels good to have them bring up things that you thought were fairly trivial, but it’s obvious that to them they weren’t. It starts to make your time here seem more worthwhile, and you realize you did have an impact, however small. Soon, the coffee, chocolate, or fresco will show up and I understand that I’m not leaving any time soon. I explain about the trees, and how well will come back to try to help them graft the sap wood on to in February. They say that it will be great to see us, but they also are quick to point out that it won’t be the same as us living here. It will just be a “visita”.

Sometimes there are silences that previously would have felt awkward. Now they are just part of passing time with friends, that now I was talking about. They don’t want me to leave, and I’m not in a hurry to go, we just aren’t sure what to say at the moment and so we sit and ponder.

Eventually, after several more good stories punctuated by silent pauses, I do decide to make my departure. I have finally gotten better at this as well, I can leave without feeling I was rude, or that I left before they got around to saying what they wanted. I have more patience, and I can relax. Heading back I realize it is already noon and that I have only given out two trees. I shrug, not worried, I know that I will get another two delivered this afternoon, and that once again I will have a great conversations with good friends.

New Continent!

So, just sitting here in the Lima airport and realized these are our first few steps on the South American continent, so I thought it worth a post! I still have a few more posts to make on El Salvador, in particular our last week there with all of the saying goodbye to our community. Will get those out in the next day or two, and then the focus will turn to our trip through Argentina. Enjoy, and like I have said before, you should expect updates on at least a weekly basis. Cheers!

Steve's Visit, Through Steve's Eyes

[This is that Guest Blog I spoke of earlier. Steve wrote a very nice entry that I think will help you all see our site through fresh eyes again. Thanks Steve!]

I am scribbling down this guest blog entry from the airport in El Salvador, about two hours since parting from Jon & Katie in bustling San Salvador.  Julie and I spent 5 days with them at their site, their community, in El Centro.  We ended our brief trip with 2 days together in San Salvador. Although I’ve been away from the U.S. for only a week, it seems like much more.  We’ve seen and experienced a lot this week.  There is much to describe about our stay and impressions of El Salvador– the landscapes, the food, how it was great to see Jon & Katie thriving in their community, how amazing the people of El Salvador are, Jon & Katie’s project work – but I’ll try to focus these ramblings on the people of El Centro and provide an outsider’s glimpse of Jon & Katie’s experience.

When we arrived in El Centro, it was immediately clear that much of the community was expecting us.  Upon arrival, we walked to one house to pick up a mattress that a family was letting us use at Jon & Katie’s for the week, then picked up blankets from another family.  All along the way, friendly faces greeted us and stopped to chat (although, the “chatting” is limited on our end, due to our less-than-stellar Spanish).  Beatrice, one of the family members at Jon & Katie’s house, had a bracelet already made for Julie; Yoni, the son in the family, had two made for me within the first couple hours of our arrival.  For dinner one night, we had pupusas at Jesus’ kitchen.  

For our last lunch in El Centro, Belgi, a friend of Jon and Katie’s (and daughter of Jon’s counterpart, Secundino) hosted us for a very elegant and delicious meal.  She was also very gracious about the tortillas that Julie and I “helped” her make … 

ours were distinctly variable and lopsided compared to Belgi’s perfectly honed tortillas (see photos of our “creations” below, ours are the left stack).  

Katie has been organizing a bread baking day once a month with some of the women, so one day we baked about 50 loaves of zucchini bread with them in an adobe oven, using zucchini’s picked from Juancito’s crop.  There were many nice moments with the community like these throughout the week.  Because Julie and I have also been considering working or volunteering internationally, including Peace Corps, it was also important for us to see what Jon & Katie’s experiences have been and get some in-depth time with them. 

 I’d always heard that a volunteer’s success, however one wants to measure that, in the Peace Corps is completely related to situational flexibility and adaptability.  “Things won’t always work out the way you planned.  Don’t be disappointed if you have to change projects.”  

Jon’s previous blog entry about changing expectations and “goals” gets at the heart of this.  Based on my own travel and work experiences, this makes a lot of sense to me.  In fact, this has always been something that has drawn me toward considering applying for the Peace Corps.  I think Jon & Katie’s experience has been a combination of succeeding at developing and implementing important, specific projects (worm farm, environmental education projects, etc.), but also reaching their community in other equally important ways.  There is more than a volunteer can contribute to a community than developing and implementing specific projects.  How they reach out and integrate into their community.  How they become liked and respected by the community.  Do they isolate or fully immerse themselves?

Assisting nations and communities with specific infrastructure, community development, agroforestry/conservation, and education projects is probably the core mission of the Peace Corps.  This is precisely what many of us are interested in, and why we consider volunteering.  We want to help.  Naturally, we develop expectations and goals before we deploy.  However, many on-the-ground variables strongly influence how this plays out in each situation.  Culture, timing, the concept of “time” (again, culture), personalities, local funding.  My guess is that how well a volunteer integrates and fits into his or her community is probably the most important variable.  In addition to their technical abilities, determination, maturity and travel savvy, this is where Jon & Katie are succeeding and thriving.  Sure, they’ve probably hardened, and would even occasionally describe themselves as a bit jaded, but who wouldn’t be?   You’d have to be.  It’s a very intense two years, requiring a lot of mental energy, flexibility, focus, and self-evolution.  Not to mention, giving up the concept of personal space for two years. 

Jon and Katie are available (all hours, literally) to talk with, provide advice to, listen to, positively challenge and encourage, the kids.  In a community where most of the adults have not had the opportunity to achieve an education at the level of this generation’s kids, Jon & Katie are probably among the very few in the community who the kids can relate to about education.  They have also earned the respect and solid friendship of the adults, and are frequently asked for their advice and assistance on a range of matters. 

So, Jon thought he left the consulting business more than two years ago.  From where I sit, this is not exactly how things have played out.  However, the type of consulting they are engaged in may be more meaningful and satisfying.  Their previous blog entries have given us an idea of what their work projects are about.  Julie and I were able to see this important, interesting work in action.  We toured the worm farm, and helped Katie give a charla on an arts project.  However, I see their contributions also including many less tangible but equally important accomplishments and “consultations.”  Jon’s counterpart, Secundino, stops by the porch daily to catch up over a cup of coffee, bounce ideas about the worm farm and agriculture, and ask Jon to attend impromptu meetings with local officials.  Gaggles of kids stop by the house daily, to check in on the Waggoners, see what’s new and interesting, and just talk.  Katie checks their progress on school projects, advises them, and listens.  Simply being present and available matters. 

I asked Julie what her favorite part of the trip was.  She said the whole thing, but probably the most memorable was the time with Jon & Katie’s local family – the people they live with.  It’s difficult to draw the lines between “families” because of many interrelationships, but the main unit we got to know is Juana, Eliseo, Karina, Yoni, Rebecca, and Beatrice.  They were some of the most welcoming, warm people we’ve ever met, and completely opened their home to us.

As I was leaving El Centro and commenting to Jon about how the kids were so engaging, he remarked that “they will always remember your visit.  Years from now they will be talking about how ‘the aliens landed here’…”  Based on what I saw and the people I met, this is true.  It is also humbling.  Later, I thought about how it must have been when Jon & Katie first arrived in this pretty remote community, before any Gringos lived here, and how much effort it must have taken to get to the point where they are – especially after seeing how they are respected, and the differences they make in this community.

Jon & Katie, thank you for a great, meaningful visit and for sharing your life and community with us!  Que bonito!

[Due to technical difficulties, I didn't post all of the photos Steve had. I will try to use some of them in future posts. Cheers!]

Close of Service

In the Peace Corps acronym-laden world this is also called COS. That’s where we are now… at the close, the finish, the end. It kind of snuck up on us really. At one point we were back home for my sister’s wedding, the next we were back here and heading to the COS conference!
It’s the conference I want to talk about. Partly because it is a very insightful event that you wouldn’t think a government agency would take the time, and more importantly, the money to do. I wonder about the history of the conference, was it something they started way back in 1963 or did it develop over time as they realized the need?
It is basically a three-day event where they get you back together with all of the people you started this crazy adventure with. These are the same people that we first met in Washington DC two years ago! It’s not as if we haven’t randomly run into, or had visits with these people… but it is the first time since we all graduated training that we are all back together in one spot! It was really great to see everyone again. Well, all but Jason and Ryan who are now home awaiting the arrival of their first little girl! Outside of that exception we all really enjoyed hanging out and catching up. Beyond all of that, I think it was important to have some time sharing experiences with each other, see the changes, talk about future plans.
Of course it isn’t just passing time, there are a ton of charlas (as we call them here in the Latin American world). The first day we covered the labyrinthine process of actually exiting the PC, meaning all of the forms, reports and interviews we need to accomplish. No wonder they do the conference almost three months prior to your end of service, it takes that long to get everything done! The next day we covered the more touchy-feely aspect of how to deal with going back to the States. What will it feel like, what will you do? There were some concrete discussions on things like how to use the PC resources to look for jobs, how to write a good resume and include your PC service in a way that employers could understand. The last day was spent mostly on how to deal with leaving your site. The feeling of leaving a community that you have become an integral part of and now have to wrench yourself away from.
Each of these aspects of the COS conference deserves some elaboration, and since I’m not really sure who my audience is for this blog entry, I’m just going to go more or less chronologically.
So, the first day. By far the most intimidating thing was the fact that on the very first day, you have to actually set the date that you cease to be a volunteer. Your true, personal COS date. See, something that most of us didn’t realize when we signed up is that even though we have our official COS date, the PC allows you to leave any time up to a month before that; in our case anytime between October 28th and November 28th. Katie and I chose November 19th. We wanted to be around for our schools graduation on the 12th, and have a bit of overlap time with the new volunteer who will arrive at our site on the 15th. So there we are, we now have a date, and more importantly for us, we can now buy our ticket for Argentina!
So some of the things that have to be accomplished by that date (we have a checklist which needs signatures) are, write our final report and description of service (DOS), have a final interview with the country director (CD) and our APCD (sorry never bothered to learn what that stood for, but its our direct supervisor), final Spanish interview, and of course have our final Medical Clearance. We had to pick dates to accomplish each of these tasks. By the time we were done with all of this it began to sink in how little time we had left!
The second day. As I said, this day we spent a lot of time talking about life after PC, including the re-adjustment phenomenon. There was a panel of RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) who talked about their experiences heading back home. It was interesting to note that only one of our group of 24 folks hadn’t gone home at least once during our two years down here. El Salvador is not that far away. Some people who went to school out of state were actually farther away from home when they went to college than they are now. That combined with internet and cell phones means that our experiences are very different from the PCVs serving in more remote countries or those of a few years ago even here in El Sal.
I will be interested in hearing some of our group’s reaction on returning home. It’s not that I think there will be major breakdowns or anything, but my general impression is that most aren’t giving themselves much time to readjust, and don’t really understand the need. As someone who has “dropped out” of the normal social structure a number of times (though not for two years like this). I know how different it makes you feel. My most used example is the “Seinfeld phenomenon”. One of those years where I was gone firefighting and then off traveling was the year of the rise to pop culture status of Seinfeld. I missed it all, and even now people who were in the flow will use a Seinfeld reference, and I will just look at them blankly while they wonder what planet I’m from.
Ok, on to the third day. For me this whole thing is one of the more interesting parts of service. The act of leaving a real community. As “estadounidense” or “norteamericanos” most of us don’t really live in communities, or I should say not close-knit family-like communities. Many of use have lived in Suburbia, which is like the antithesis of a real community. So to me, the volunteers leaving from these types of communities will be a unique experience in their (and our) lives. When Katie and I left The Pocket, we barely felt the need to say goodbye to anyone! We kind of knew our immediate neighbors, but it would be a stretch to say that any of them were friends. Here we have so many people we need to say goodbye to, and spend some time with before we go! I feel like we have it a little better in that we plan to come back through here after our trip to Argentina, still, it is an emotional thing.
Ok, so this has gotten a little long, but I wanted to give you an idea of what this phase of Peace Corps life is about.
Update: So, this also took forever to get posted so now we are even closer to our departure date, a mear 15 days!! Yikes! The blogs should get more frequent once we start traveling, and I expect that even along that journey, our thoughts and my posts will still sometimes be about El Centro and our Peace Corps experiences. Cheers!