I wrote about flexibility in my last post and that theme is pertinent to my theme this week: change. While growing up I remember always hearing how the only thing that never changed was change. I have come to whole-heartedly believe that and in my day-to-day life here have learned to expect it. Although some things don't ever seem to change that you want to change (like people showing up on time for meetings), change in my life is pretty constant.
I've got some concrete examples. For instance, I've noticed a change in the size of the rat population in my roof - there is way more noise these days and I hear squeaks and fights of possibly younger creatures. And I'm hoping in the theme of change that the natural (bark extract and molasses) poison that I finished prepping today will bring some peace to my rooftop and my sleep. Though I'd rather not have this event change the rank coming from my roof due to decaying rats. Okay, this example is getting gruesome, I'll stop.
Another quite physical change that recently occurred was in the weather. Due to geologic systems that I faintly remember learning about in college, this country receives two seasons year-round: dry and wet. And if you've been following my posts you'll know that this rainy season (normally May to October), has been especially wet. The weather forecasters even predicted nonstop rain until November. But the God's seem to have decided otherwise - and this is actually what the people here believe. While we could still be in store for some more rain, about a week and a half ago the sun decided that it was ready for some change and came out...in full force. I literally haven't seen a cloud since the sun decided to shine. So all of my clothes went from moldy to dry. Sort of an ironic contrast, though quite depressing, the crops have seen some change too. Due to the heavy rains this year the first bean crop of the year was not very successful and had a low yield. Now the rain has stopped quite abruptly and a little bit early and the little bean plants for the second round of cultivation are drying up. This weather throws us through loops.
Lastly, I notice significant emotional change. According to one of the doctors that I've been to here as a young person my emotions should just be positive. Clearly, he hasn't been a Peace Corps volunteer. I regularly feel like I'm on an emotional roller coaster and I don't know if it's the meds I'm on, me going crazy, the experience I'm going through, or a combination of all three. While I didn't have any major lows today, it is fairly common, though I find frustration even more common (I guess that could be cause of some of the lows that I have). Here are some of my downs for today: the kiddies at school paid no attention when I was reading them a story, one of the girls I tutor in reading Spanish seemed to have forgotten the alphabet (after months and months of studying it), I found out that my health promoter is without a space to have consults and work and the community isn't doing anything about it, I realized the treasurer in my shampoo group still seems to be clueless on how to fill out the paperwork, and when it seemed as though no one was going to show up to my youth meeting. In conjunction, I had some ups when: my internet worked and I got out some important emails, I made a natural rat poison that was easier to make than I thought would be, I had a surprisingly good conversation with a neighbor, many kids turned in drawings for the monthly drawing contest, and my youth group meeting ended up going quite well and we were productive.
Those are a few of the changes going on in my life down here in El Salvador. Another nice change is that now that I've been here for over a year (11 months left!), not everything is new. Things change around here, but I can at least predict some things having lived here for quite a while.
I've got some concrete examples. For instance, I've noticed a change in the size of the rat population in my roof - there is way more noise these days and I hear squeaks and fights of possibly younger creatures. And I'm hoping in the theme of change that the natural (bark extract and molasses) poison that I finished prepping today will bring some peace to my rooftop and my sleep. Though I'd rather not have this event change the rank coming from my roof due to decaying rats. Okay, this example is getting gruesome, I'll stop.
Another quite physical change that recently occurred was in the weather. Due to geologic systems that I faintly remember learning about in college, this country receives two seasons year-round: dry and wet. And if you've been following my posts you'll know that this rainy season (normally May to October), has been especially wet. The weather forecasters even predicted nonstop rain until November. But the God's seem to have decided otherwise - and this is actually what the people here believe. While we could still be in store for some more rain, about a week and a half ago the sun decided that it was ready for some change and came out...in full force. I literally haven't seen a cloud since the sun decided to shine. So all of my clothes went from moldy to dry. Sort of an ironic contrast, though quite depressing, the crops have seen some change too. Due to the heavy rains this year the first bean crop of the year was not very successful and had a low yield. Now the rain has stopped quite abruptly and a little bit early and the little bean plants for the second round of cultivation are drying up. This weather throws us through loops.
Lastly, I notice significant emotional change. According to one of the doctors that I've been to here as a young person my emotions should just be positive. Clearly, he hasn't been a Peace Corps volunteer. I regularly feel like I'm on an emotional roller coaster and I don't know if it's the meds I'm on, me going crazy, the experience I'm going through, or a combination of all three. While I didn't have any major lows today, it is fairly common, though I find frustration even more common (I guess that could be cause of some of the lows that I have). Here are some of my downs for today: the kiddies at school paid no attention when I was reading them a story, one of the girls I tutor in reading Spanish seemed to have forgotten the alphabet (after months and months of studying it), I found out that my health promoter is without a space to have consults and work and the community isn't doing anything about it, I realized the treasurer in my shampoo group still seems to be clueless on how to fill out the paperwork, and when it seemed as though no one was going to show up to my youth meeting. In conjunction, I had some ups when: my internet worked and I got out some important emails, I made a natural rat poison that was easier to make than I thought would be, I had a surprisingly good conversation with a neighbor, many kids turned in drawings for the monthly drawing contest, and my youth group meeting ended up going quite well and we were productive.
Those are a few of the changes going on in my life down here in El Salvador. Another nice change is that now that I've been here for over a year (11 months left!), not everything is new. Things change around here, but I can at least predict some things having lived here for quite a while.
(Fun photo of something that never seems to change… girls doing a tradition dance for the Independence Day celebration at the school.)
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