HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, SAMOA!

October 7^th marked one year since our plane landed in Samoa on that hot Sunday morning.  It’s absolutely insane how quickly the time has gone by.  It’s weird because a day can drag on here like none other, but months fly by.  Time is strange on the islands. 

This last year has been an emotional roller coaster, containing some of the best and some of the hardest times in my life.  I feel like I have been more challenged here than anywhere else before, but I have also felt more rewarded here than anywhere else before.  Most days I love Samoa, but there have definitely been some days when I think I just want to go home today and never come back!  They say Peace Corps is the “toughest job you’ll ever love.”  I never understood it until I got into the thick of what it really means to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.  What does being a PCV mean to me?  It means giving your last 20 tala to your family or someone in need because they don’t have food for the night.  It means sharing your ice cream you’ve been thinking about getting for 2 weeks with a kid at the shop. It means doing things you don’t want to do, like dancing in public.  It means helping a kid with homework at 9:00 at night.  It means cold showers every day without complaining.  It means sweating bullets everyday when you walk home in the sun in your school uniform which happens to be the heaviest and least breathiest material on the planet (and did I mention it covers neck to ankles?). It means only having about 4 different meal options.  It means crackers or fried flour and water for breakfast every morning.  It means only being able to talk to your family once a month, maybe.  It means getting to see the rewards of your work in your students.  It means getting to listen to a kid read a book they couldn’t have read 6 months ago.  It means getting to hold hands with 40 different kids on any given day.  It means endless kisses and hugs.  It means singing the same song 20 different times because the kids love it so much.  It means dancing silly because the kids think it’s funny.  It means staying positive even on the days you don’t know what you are doing here.  It means remembering that I am an only one person, I can’t do much, but I can do something. 

I’ve been contemplating a lot the idea of time, and how afraid I am of leaving without having done all that I can here in Samoa. It’s scary how quickly time goes by, and how easy it is to say “Oh today is a busy day, I’ll do something good for someone tomorrow.”  I think I’m learning here how important EVERY single day is.  And how important EVERY single interaction is.  How we treat people makes all the difference in the world.  What we do with our time is up to us, but when it’s gone it’s gone and you can’t get it back.  I know, for me, I don’t want to waste a single day not trying to do as much as I can to try and bring a little more good or a little more happiness or a little more kindness into the world.  Because, Heaven knows, with all the bad that there is in the world, we need as much goodness as we can get.