Just a quick update, I’m suffering from some insomnia after waking up at 2 am to a mouse in my house. Chasing him out got my adrenaline pumping and now I’m wide awake.
Not too much to update on though. School is going well, I haven’t really had a chance to start any clubs yet as the Senior 1 and Senior 4 students just arrived at school yesterday. Now that they are here hopefully things can get rolling. We’re starting on our map project. I’ve bought all the supplies and yesterday the carpenter came and hung the plywood we will paint on. It looks great but it’s huge, about 6 feet by 12 feet! It will be nice once it’s finished but the painting process is going to be a little challenging.
The most exciting thing of course is that my parents are coming on Friday! It’s crazy! I’ve spent all of January thinking about it and planning and now it's finally here! My mom thanked me the other day for organizing everything and I told her I have enjoyed it, which I honestly have. I realized that I’ve enjoyed it so much is because for once I have control of something. I know what’s going on and I can plan something and have it go the way I plan; there aren’t any cultural barriers to overcome, I don’t have to be sell them on my ideas, they’ll pretty much just go along with what I say. Finally I just get to boss someone around and it feels so good! (This is sort of an unexpected personality trait, but I guess Peace Corps is all about self-discovery, right?!) Hopefully my parents won't mind too much! ;-)
In the midst of all the planning and anticipation of their arrival I’ve been working hard on just being here. I sort of feel like I’m at the peak of my service, I’ve made it through the first year of figuring out what I’m doing, what my role is, etc. and I still have time before I need to think about what will happen after Peace Corps. I have this little window of time where I can really work hard, get things done and mostly just sit back and appreciate what I’m doing here and the people I’m with. Since the one year mark time has been flying by and I know it’s only going to continue going faster. It’s easy to start counting down the months but I don’t want to do that yet. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I finally feel comfortable and confident enough to truly be myself and enjoy it. I want to learn to live in the present and recognize the life I’m living here, every day, before it’s gone in an instant.
I'll try and update while my parents are here and then write a full report on all our travels after they go.
All my love,
Annie
