Quick morning update, things are going well here. It is February now and the January blues are wearing off. I am travelling at the end of the month back to Holland for another family reunion. My parents will not be there this time around, but my cousin Sam will be. I am so excited to see everyone!
Work continues to be an adjustment. But if I expected anything else I should not have joined the Peace Corps! I am teaching English and trying to get a few other projects going. I have started tutoring a few more people which I always enjoy because it means making some new friends and being part of another family.
My emotional state is following the Peace Corps Volunteer emotional health chart freakishly close! There is actually a chart that shows where the "average" volunteer starts to feel down and when that starts to go back up. Now that I am past it I can talk a little more in depth about the harshness of the first 3 months at site. It was a really dark time for me. If you are reading this and you didn't know, don't feel bad. I let very few people know. I would call it my "personal crisis" stage. You know the, what the hell am I doing, stage. There are a lot of ways to make it through that stage. Everyone has to figure it out for themselves. I relied heavily on a few friends and family, and other than that kept my head down and kept going. One foot in front of the other you keep going and then somehow you make it through. I am not saying it isn't hard, I am not saying I didn't fight the urge to blow this popsicle stand, but I also know that I didn't leave so much at home to pack it in with out giving it all that I could. I picked myself up after that and kind of re-focused on what I was doing and did really good for the next few months. January was a bit of a blue month, but I think it is for a lot of people, volunteers or not. But again I am focusing back on things and trying to push myself. I am really looking forward to visiting some volunteers and spending time getting to know them better and seeing more of this beautiful country.
I woke up to this beautiful view this morning and could not resist taking this picture.
This is a stray dog that I have started to feed. I have named her Penelope or Penny for short.
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