On things, old and new, and transitioning.

Life in America, even while unemployed, quickly gets away from you.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but that is how it is.

One of the biggest and most time-consuming parts of my American life has been the technology.  There's free internet everywhere and it's pretty fast, limited only by my outdated and well-used netbook.  I can actually internet shop and buy things if I want.  Or I can read today's news, every day.  I've learned what the heck pinterest is, and that # is a hashtag.  Nobody calls # a "pound" any more without the risk of getting laughed at, speaking from experience.  When I shut off my computer there's the TV.  Free movies and TV of all types, current types, on a big screen.  And I don't know if you realized, but high definition has come a long way in the last 2 years.  Am I standing in this lawyer's office or just watching it on TV?  Also, call me whenever you want.  Just because you can.  I'm just happy that my phone is dumb, so I don't have to figure out how to use that, too.  No wonder so few people read books.  And oh, the books.  The authors have just kept writing and it's awesome.

I've been awed by how much stuff I feel that I really need to get along in the U.S.  It makes me a little bit uncomfortable.  I no longer have to make special trips into town to hit the ATM (and hope that it's working) and carry around an uncomfortably large stack of cash.  I do have to convince someone to give me a credit card.  Public transportation here is nonexistent to highly inconvenient to laughably expensive, and since I don't think I can mentally or emotionally handle city life that means I had to go car shopping.  Quite possibly the most stressful shopping ever invented.  My closet is full of what I think to be a ridiculous amount of new clothing, but it turns out that there are seasons here, and that I need clean, neat clothing to go out into town, and even nicer items for interviews or weddings, and clothes I can wear for outside work or exercise.

Parts of life in America still haven't ceased being awesome.  Unlimited ice water, hot showers with functional shower heads, and laundry machines are up high on that list.  Grocery shopping is still difficult to do, because I still can't quite conceive of being able to buy more that a few days worth of food or food for more than one person without it going bad before you get around to eating it.   Also, knowing what you want only means you narrowed it down to a minimum of 5 different options.  The options are a killer for me.  One trip to CVS included 15 minutes of standing in front of the hair ties.  If I'm going to spend a whole $3 on hair accessories I now feel like I need to make sure they are exactly the right ones, and why the heck do I have to buy a minimum of 30?

Yes, there are a lot of changes in my life and adjustments to be made.  But above all that, it has been incredible to see and catch up with all the family and friends I missed while I was gone.  It's easy to get tired of talking about where I've been and what I've done, but it will take a long time for me to tire of hearing about what everyone else has done.  Someone asked me: do you miss Madagascar?  Well, there are things I don't miss, but I really do miss the people.  But I count myself lucky because now I am back among all the awesome people that I missed when I was there.

Next year!

I've been lucky enough to find a job for the next year.  Starting in September, I'll be a FoodCorps service member in North Carolina.  I'm very excited to start working in school gardens and to live near some of my family as well.  As always, I will do my best to keep everyone up to date.

Your Burning Questions Answered: Installment 1

Now that I'm in the US and constantly on the internet my ideas for blog posts have substantially dwindled.  Since there isn't really much exciting adventuring going on in my life I'm going to try reworking the blog a little bit.  Here's attempt number one: Your Burning Questions Answered.

What I found out this weekend (other than that all my friends are still cool and still like me, hooray!) is that y'all have a lot of questions for me.  A lot of the same questions.  Perhaps I can answer some of them here and save conversation space for the weirder inquiries or for you to talk about yourself or for us to stare awkwardly at each other, because I'm good at that and sometimes I miss it.  So, without further ado, here goes.

Question: Are you in, like, culture shock.
Answer:  YES.
Further elaboration available in future conversations or potential future posts.


Question:  So what was your job?
Answer:  Those of you who have been following along should already have some ideas about this.  (If you didn't follow, feel free to see the archives from May 2011 to April 2013.)

Technically speaking, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the environment sector.

Leaving the technicalities aside, the job title doesn't have a whole lot of meaning on its own.  Everyone's "Peace Corps experience" is different (even within one country like Madagascar), and if you're curious about the Peace Corps in general and not just me, you should do some further reading.  I lived in the northeastern part of Madagascar that is famous for its vanilla production.  I didn't really have any NGOs or other or organizations in my village to work with, so I worked directly with community members.  Being the first PCV to live in Ambohimanarina meant I spent a lot of time just explaining Peace Corps and what the heck I was doing there.

The Peace Corps has 3 goals which are basically: (1) train natives in useful skills, (2) share American culture with natives, and (3) share other cultures with Americans.  I don't think you can over-emphasize the culture sharing (goals 2 and 3).  Probably about 90% of my experience was learning about their daily life (how to winnow rice, how to grow it, what a funeral is like, etc) and talking about American daily life.

Outside of sharing culture some of the stuff I worked on was: leading community meetings to discuss local needs, building fuel-saving cookstoves, teaching a weekly English club, working with a women's group on income-generation via the nearby national park, teaching composting, teaching a non-traditional rice farming technique, and discussing work plans with environmentally-minded community members.

But really, what Americans would consider my "job" occupied a very small fraction of my last 2 years.  Just living in Madagascar is in itself a time-consuming thing.  I had my own house which I cleaned (including sweeping and mibrousse-ing the floor aka waxing/buffing it with a coconut husk), and everyday chores become extra long when you remove certain amenities like running water and electricity (fetching water from the taps, doing the laundry by hand, cooking everything from scratch, shopping every day for perishable items).  Then there was fun stuff, like hanging out with friends, reading, learning to sew, and being a dispenser of toys for small children.


Question: How was it?
Answer:  It was indescribable.  Maybe all the cliches fit in here, because it was amazing and life-changing and pretty darn cool, but it was also frustrating and challenging and a bit annoying at times.  Peace Corps is certainly one of those things you need to do to truly understand.  Overall, I'm very glad I did it and I know I gained a lot out of it.  Day-to-day life in Madagascar made that hard to realize at the time.  It's easy to sit here in the US now and reminisce about all the great times I had and the great people I met, but it's also difficult to gloss over the struggles of seeing so much poverty, encountering a lot of apathy to work that I thought was only helpful, or just plain being harrassed because I am a white woman.

All-in-all, I'm still processing the whole Madagascar thing and probably will always be.  So, I'll do my best to answer your questions in the best way possible when I am able.  Keep checking back for further answers.  Right now I'm working on questions I've simply heard in conversation, but if you have any just send me a comment and I'll try to answer them in future installments.

Warm welcome

So it's been just over a week since I got back to USA, and boy, what a week!

Last week I landed in Hawaii to vacation with my mom, sister Meredith, and Meredith's boyfriend Craig.  We went to Kauai, the most un-developed Hawaiian island and it was beautiful.  We spent the week enjoying the sun at the pool and beach, snorkeling, kayaking, taking an awesome helicopter tour of the island.  Pretty darn awesome.  There's a lot to do, so I guess I'm going to add Kauai to my ever-lengthening list of places I want to go (/return to again) in my life.  Any tips on how to make money and travel the world would be much appreciated.

After Hawaii I hopped a plane and headed back to North Carolina.  Hello, continental U.S.  I spent the weekend in the Triangle for a wedding.  I have to admit the prospect was kind of scary to me: lots of white people, including strangers, in a formal setting.  It turned out to be a blast.  I received a really warm welcome by everyone, and got to dance the night away (one of my favorite activities).  I also got to see some of my best friends in the world and celebrate with them, which was pretty exciting.  It went by fast, and I really hope I can get to spend some better one-on-one time catching up with everyone in the coming weeks.

Now it's on to visiting the family, which should be just as rewarding.  I'm on the job hunt, but have already had one interview and another interview is scheduled, so that's pretty encouraging.  If you know of any school gardens out there looking for helpers, let me know!

Thanks to everyone who has warmly welcomed me back to USA, I have a phone now so please feel free to call or text because I'd love to catch up.  I'll be bouncing around along the east coast over the next few weeks, so I hope to see you around!