Another Year is Dawning

For the first time in my life, I am actually living on a schedule where the "New Year" makes sense to me. As a student and teacher, New Years never really had the impact for me that so many people seemed to feel--it came right in the middle of a school year, not at the beginning or end of anything except for the free calendar from the insurance company. This year however, it feels like something much more profound. The halfway mark of my Peace Corps service is proving to be a very complicated place. There is some celebration for having conquered that first year, for the small victories, for the personal growth. There is some frustration at how, no matter how slowly the individual days seemed to pass, the time has rushed by. My successes don't measure up very well by my ingrained, western hemisphere standards of accomplishment. But every volunteer I've talked to has said the second year is busier. That may be a reflection of finally adjusting fully to the slower pace but my list of possible activities when I return is encouraging enough. At times I am confused about how I can be so bored in the midst of such an adventure, and how I can be so idle in a place where there is so much to be done. And at other times I'm so thankful that I can take a day off to go to a custom wedding, that I can sit and talk with Krenny, our office secretary, all afternoon instead of being tied to a project or a deadline, that I can spend 3 days on a letter instead of 3 minutes on an email to a friend.

I'm returning to Vanuatu for one more year and I am looking forward to the downward coast after a year spent running, crawling, limping up the incline. It means one more year without electricity 24-7, one more year of cold showers, one more year of banana laplap, one more year of cockroaches and mice and ticks and geckos, one more year of not-enough-to-do. But it also means just one more year with my host family, just one more year of living 50 yards from the ocean, just one more year of having my own garden, just one more year of time for hobbies, just one more year of simple living. Though I'm on the downhill run, it promises to be an emotional trip.

It has been wonderful to be home. The culture shock wasn't too bad; I think all of those hours on airplanes and in airports helped reintroduce me to our more luxurious way of life. The first trip to the grocery store had an "Oh, yeah. This is what a store is like" quality. It was wonderful to hear the Christmas carols and see the lights and smell the pine trees. We may go overboard with Christmas here in the states, but I like it. And everytime I opened the fridge (which was more often than it should have been) there were lots of choices--CHOICES! I've been able to spend time with my family including my new nephew, who is a real cutie. I got some work done and even managed to earn a little money! I've even had the chance to experience the cold of winter, though it's a Floridian's definition of cold. The fleece and warm up pants I packed for New Zealand have come in handy; temperatures here have plunged into the 50s. As much as I dislike the cold, I am trying to store up a little bit of the chill because nighttime temperatures in Vanuatu these days are hovering around 90.

I plan to get online one more time before I leave to post some pictures. I hope everyone's holidays were a time of rest and reunions and God's blessings and that the new year brings even more of the same.