"...He prayeth well, who loveth well, Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best, All things both great and small;
for the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all..."

The Rime of the Anchient Mariner -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Monday, October 31, 2011

My Obsession: TIME

I stare at my daily planner, and I ask myself "is it really November of 2011 already?" I notice that sometimes I look at my calander, daily planner, and watch obsessively. One of the motivating factors of me to join the Peace Corps is that I didn't want time to pass me by & lose my 20's to a job. My birthday card from this year reads, "enjoy the last of your 20s". I think hurtfully, "what are they talking about- I'm 28..oh, I'm 29." If I forget my own age, maybe I'm not so obsessed.

Q: One year into my Peace Corps service and how do I feel about it? A: This is exactly where I should be in terms of comforts and challenges. I have a good idea what my role is & what I want my legacy to be.

Q: Am I happy? A: Everyone says how much happier I look! I realize that I may never have a job with this much liberty, satisfaction, and status. I want to look back and say "I loved it".

Q: Can I do this forever? A: Well, no. I seek something profound in Mexico, but if I don't find it, I obviously need to move on.

One cultural note that my friend and I talk about is the tendency of Mexicans to talk in the Present Tense...do you notice me talking in Present Tense right now? It's not so natural in English, b/c all I want to do is talk in the future, the gerund, and past participle and every other verb tense to get my ideas across. Maybe that which I seek in Mexico is new way of thinking...to think in the present, and not obsess over the future.

Q: So, do I love it? A: Yes! The people, the food, the natural beauty, the language, the experience.

I am so grateful for this experience. So many peers have experienced a wide variety of feelings and life-changing events. Everyone's journey is different. I say that I love my journey in the most humble manner, and only to acknowlege how I'm feeling.

Below, there are pictures of a Beach Clean Up we did here in San Blas in honor of International Coastal Clean-Up Day. In the span of two hours, 77 volunteers picked up nearly 500lbs of trash including two Jumbo containers of plastics. It was a great event that incorporated many different Gov, non-Gov & private institutions & that got Media coverage. The cool thing with this event is that we did it as part of the Ocean Conservancy, so we formed teams of 4-5 people and had each team record the types of trash we collected. It was an overwhelming amount of plastic! I added up all the data sheets and fwd'd it to Ocean Conservancy, who then provides it to governments and businesses internationally with statistics to encourage them to make environmentally responsible decisions.
Find out more at http://www.oceanconservancy.org. All in a day's work (though, it took much much longer to plan).




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