Thursday, December 13, 2012

Pretty Bird

I just stumbled off the bus back in my site after 10 days in Lima for medical checks and a Youth Initiative Committee meeting.  Since there wasn´t much to do, all us volunteers recessed into hedonism.  Expensive dinners, long hot showers, gay discoteca until 4am, and the slightly better brand of boxed wine.  From a glass.  But the best part by far was being able to spend that amount of time with my fellow volunteers again.  I wasn´t tired of them even after a week of almost constant togetherness.  I suppose all the alone time at site builds up social capacity.

That week was also a bicycle pump attached to my self-esteem balloon.  As I´ve said before, I got out of my way to be frumpy at site to deflect creepy male attention.  It´s also cold and impossible to stay clean, so the hair is braided and layers are piled on.  I think it´s a factor of contrast, but I got a shower, put on some eyeliner and jeans that fit and walked down the street like a parade float.  I got lots of compliments on my long hair and my PCVC said that it looked like I had been working out.  At my checkup, the scale said 142, and I came to Peace Corps at 138, so not bad!  I wonder how much of my feelings of chubbiness are mental.  I was also really popular at the gay club and the men would come salsa with me.  I´m taking it as a compliment, because otherwise it´s too confusing.

I think the Peace Corps is helping me be more of the person I want to be.  I´ve always been kinda self-conscious and reserved, but service is beating it out of me.  I have so little time with my peers that I can´t waste it holding back.  I´m always wierd looking and stared at, so self-consciousness needs to go out the window if I´m to leave my house.  Might as well put on a rainbow hat and a giant feather earring.  Because, as my favorite quote of the week went, "Life is wierd, now so am I." 

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