there are very few experiences in life where we can consciously note that they are profound and changing us, while we are simultaneously experiencing them. that is what peace corps has been for me. for the past 15 months, i have had one of the most incredible life-changing experiences. i arrived to a country not being able to express myself in the local language, with exception of two key phrases, and now i have spent the past week expressing with deep and emotional thought my feelings and gratitude to my community, family and friends.
i recall a charla during training about how individual each peace corps experience is for each person, and that for some their service is only two or three months, others it’s two years and for others it may be three, and in the past month or so i have come to realize my length of time for my service is 15 months. during my time in peru, i have learned a new language, a new way to love, how to serve, created lasting friendships with both volunteers and people in my community, and created a new peruvian family. i, my friends, am the luckiest. i fell in love with an ancient culture, and talk about it with pride as though it were my own. my views on the world have been turned upside down, and i love the new view. i feel so enriched, and hope that i can continue to carry all that i have come to learn with me always. i have given 1000% of myself, and as my projects have come to a natural end, so has my time in peru. i have come and experienced all that i set out to experience, and now i am leaving this country more in love with it than i did when i arrived. i am changed. and i am grateful.
so, i leave the dust bowl of peru with my eyes full of tears (not because of the dust irritation in my eyes), and with a full heart, and i take that as a sign of a service well-served. i am sad as this chapter is coming to a close, but also so excited for the next chapter that awaits…whatever that is. i am forever indebted to the people of tucume, to this country and to my fellow volunteers, who truly made this a transformative experience for me. peace and love. peace and love.
see you soon u.s.a.
perusing peru... 