Is This Real Life?

I realize this is shallow but I’m just going to go ahead and say it…I MISS MY CLOTHES! What I wouldn’t do to be able to wear a denim vest or a pair of high-waisted neon spandex. Honestly, other than my friends and family I think it’s what I miss most from home. When I told my friend that the other day he said, “Well isn’t that liberating in a way?” and no, it’s not. My closet from my former life was a beautiful thing!

It’s funny the things that make you miss home, though. It’s never the things you think. That’s also true for the things that make this experience difficult. Everyone said that the transition from training to site was going to be the hardest part, and they were right. These last few weeks have been hard. But not for anything in particular that I can pinpoint and not for the reasons I would have assumed before I got here.

It’s not the running water for 3 hours a day or "showering" with cold buckets of water out of a giant rubber trash bin, those things you get used to. It’s not the daily ridiculous cat-calling and inappropriate behavior from men, although that has surely made me want to karate chop a stranger in the neck from time to time. It’s not even the fact that everything takes SO long to do here. Something like making copies that takes maximum 10 minutes to do in the United States turns into a whole day project in Peru.

I think it’s just the day-to-day existing in a culture that is completely different from yours. The differences are stark and subtle and I actually think it’s the subtle ones that have more of an impact. The difference in the attitude towards time, for example, I think is a big one for Americans.

The other day my friend Sam was frustrated with a meeting not starting on time at his site, which is basically a given here in Peru. A Peruvian told him not to worry about it because, “Time doesn’t exist.” To this he replied, “It does in America.”

I think that about sums it up right there.

Until next time! I LOVE YOU!

Love,

Kimberly