This is the view I chose on Friday, after our last training
session as a complete team. The trainees for Chuuk and Palau left Saturday, and
rather than draw it out and make last night together into a giant sob-fest (on
my end, of course), I opted to walk myself to my newly found favorite reading
spot. The ridge you see across the water (it’s the same island, it just bends
around) is Sokehs, the one we climbed several weeks ago. Even though this
picture is beautiful, it doesn’t really even do it justice.
This picture, however, is pretty accurate. No editing or
color-enhancing was done to this photo—this is my real life. Last weekend we
were celebrating our last weekend together as well as several birthdays, so a
few of us splurged for dinner at the nicest restaurant on the island. The
prices mirror those of say, a Cheesecake Factory (mmm cheesecake…), but on our stipend
that requires several days of meager lunches to save up. It was so worth it,
though. And needless to say, the view was spectacular. That kind of goes
without saying, though, no matter where I am on the island, I never once think,
“Man, I wish it was prettier here.” Every view is breathtaking, every sunset is
glorious, and every jungle rain is indescribably wonderful. It just is.
This is the world’s most adorable kitten. Defying all odds,
my family has yet again gone against cultural norms and taken another pet (one
they keep inside, nonetheless). My Nohno has a friend whose cat just had a
litter, so she came home wih this little guy. I got to name him, and I chose
Kisen (not sure of spelling), which means “little” in Pohnpeian. He is utterly
perfect. Again, this pet loves me the most, so he routinely curls up in my lap
while I read, making my heart melt. He loves exploring my room, but he isn’t
allowed to sleep with me, because I have a woven matt on my floor, which serves
as a rug, and Kisen just cannot resist trying out his claws on it at all hours
of the night. My Nohno offered to let me take him with me when I move next
month, but I declined. In this environment, it is all too for a pet to get
killed and eaten (by other animals or by people) and I just wouldn’t be able to
handle it if something happened to him on my watch. Plus, my new family might
not be up for it. I will just have to visit him whenever I come back into town.
For now, I just enjoy carting this tiny ball of fluff around the house on my
shoulder and watching him prance around the room chasing bugs and lizards (he’s
not yet caught one).
This is my darling family. Note my Nohno and I have now two
sets of matching mumus. She calls them our “uniform” (I don’t think she knows
the word “matching”), and proudly has us dress in them for church or special
occasions. The bottom picture was taken at a Thank You dinner for the families
before the other trainees left. For the
first (and probably the last) time I am the tallest member of my family, and
it’s very strange. I’m the one the ask to reach things that are high up (which
isn’t much), and they are baffled by the idea that I could be considered short
in America. I tried to prove it to them at the Thank You dinner, by having
other Peace Corps stand next to me, but they still just think those Peace Corps
(we are nouns, by the way, not “Peace Corps Trainees” but just “Peace Corps”)
are just exceptionally tall, while I am just normal amounts of tall.
---------
That’s it for now, thanks for reading. Also, a big thank you
to everyone who sends me letters—I really appreciate it. I especially want to give a shout out to my
most recent batch. On Thursday I got six letters at once (I wish I could
explain that one, I’m going to blame the limited flight schedule). One from my
darling sister, two from my wonderful godmother, one from Jessica (an SG
advisor that I adored at USF), one very unexpected letter from Mamma Bacon (the
mother of an old and dear friend,
complete with a hand-crafted card) and of course, one from the always reliable
Rachel. It’s just so wonderful to receive mail. It doesn’t even matter if all
you tell me is what you ate for lunch that day; it’s just nice to hear from
people.
So, thanks for continuing to put smiles on my face! I
reactivated my Facebook this week too, so look me up! I’ll be attempting to tag
myself in photos from other Trainees in the coming weeks, so look out for it!
With love,
Christy
No comments:
Post a Comment