One year ago...

One year ago today, I said goodbye to my family and headed to the airport on my way first to Washington D.C. and then to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to embark on what I thought would be 27 months of Peace Corps service.  Things didn’t exactly work out as planned, but I have had a chance to reflect on and learn from everything that has happened in the past year, and I have definitely grown and changed because of my experiences. 

            They say that the Peace Corps is “the hardest job you’ll ever love,” and boy was it hard.  Being away from my family and friends, learning a new language, living with a host family, eating beans and tortillas everyday, sleeping under a mosquito net, and the lack of certain household amenities like showers and hot water could have been enough to make my Peace Corps experience unpleasant.  However, the positives outweighed the negatives.  Genuinely kind and dedicated Peace Corps staff, welcoming host families, and gracious community members all made my time in Honduras worthwhile.

            To celebrate the one year anniversary of my trip to Honduras, here are the top 10 things I’ve learned in the past year:

10.  Chill out!  Seriously.  There’s nothing like spending a weekend doing nothing more than doing laundry, reading a book in a hammock, going to the river, and walking around town.  Relaxation is an art that I think I am close to mastering thanks to my time as a PCV.

9.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  Anyone who knows me (family, friends, classmates, coworkers, professors) knows that I am a perfectionist.  I experienced so many new things in Honduras: doing professional development with secondary school teachers, teaching dental hygiene, doing reading interventions in Spanish, and meeting with parents to plan a parenting school.  And none of those things went perfectly.  I had to hope that things would go well, but accept that it wasn’t going to be perfect, simply because it was something new and difficult for me—a lesson that I wish I had learned a long time ago.

8.  I get by with a little help from my friends.  Friends from the Peace Corps office, friends in my training group (H-19), friends at home.  Phone calls, skype chats, and crazy virtual reunions once I got home are what has kept me going through it all.  Friends are great, and I appreciate them way more than I ever have before.  There’s nothing like 11 weeks of Peace Corps training to solidify a great group of friends.

7.  I’m stronger than I thought.  There were times that I was frustrated.  I hinted at it in a few blog posts, and my mom and dad definitely got an earful over the phone at one point or another.  However, I dealt with things, pushed through tough situations, and worked my butt off to make things work out.  I definitely impressed myself with my strength.

6.  Kindness is everywhere.  I had some pretty amazing host families and counterparts.  They threw me a birthday party, let me celebrate Christmas with them, cooked my meals, taught me how to wash my clothes, gave me rides to places, introduced me to their friends, bought me sodas at work, and genuinely welcomed me into their homes.  I only hope that someday I can learn to be as kind and caring as the Chavez and Canales families and my counterparts and co-workers in Sulaco.

5.  A new level of friendliness.  Wouldn’t the world be a better place if everyone said “Good morning” or “Good afternoon” to everyone that they walked past all day long?  There’s nothing that makes you feel more accepted and welcomed than having people greet you on the street, and that is the norm in small-town Honduras life.  Yes, I was the only “gringa” in town, so everyone knew my name, and yes, I did have to put up with the “piropos” (cat calls), but I loved walking around and greeting everyone in town.  I’ve tried to raise my standards of friendliness since returning home.

4.  I can do a lot of things I didn’t think I could.  Okay, so this one goes with number 7, but I never thought I’d be able to learn so much Spanish and be able to do things like talk to a roomful of parents about their issues with their children, run a baseball practice with 30 kids and only 12 gloves, do a 10K hike through the mountains, and run a day camp with little to no resources.  Who knew?  In the future I’ll think twice about underestimating my abilities.  I left Honduras feeling like I could do anything…and that’s a pretty cool feeling.

3.  People need hope.  More than anything else, it is hope that keeps people going.  Sometimes I felt that, even if I wasn’t doing much, just by being in Sulaco I was giving people hope by letting them know that someone was thinking of them and recognizing that they needed help.  I didn’t get a chance to do anything dramatic or complete any huge projects, but sometimes what people need most is to know that someone is thinking about them and recognizing their need.

2.  Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.  When I got home, I was overwhelmed.  By technology, by the pace of life, by people rushing here and there always on a deadline or complaining about something small and usually insignificant.  I definitely miss the simple life.  Taking time to talk to people face-to-face and spending genuine time together with people you care about is something that we don’t always remember to do in our fast-paced, technology-filled world.  In my opinion, it’s better to live more simply.

1.  Things don’t always happen the way you planned them, but that isn’t always a bad thing.  Yes, I was disappointed when I didn’t get to finish out my Peace Corps service in Honduras.  However, the lessons I learned, the ways that I grew, and the friends that I met are reason enough to be satisfied and grateful for the short experience that I did have.

That last one is a big one for me as of recently.  I’ve found myself back at Silver Lake for the summer, a camp where I have worked for many summers.  I’m in a completely new role, in charge of a group of 13 high schoolers for the whole summer as they work together and live in community.  We’re only a few weeks in, but so far it’s been great.  I didn’t think I’d be back here for another summer, but I’m glad that I am.  I’ve been able to put into practice all of the lessons I’ve learned—being friendly and kind towards my co-workers and the campers, simplifying my life, appreciating and building friendships, and striving to do my best rather than trying to be perfect. 

Everything’s supposed to happen for a reason, right?  I’m back in a place that I love, working with people I love, and getting ready to embark on another Peace Corps journey.  Life is good.  The past year has been challenging, exciting, and exhausting, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Hasta luego!

-Sarita

Camp friends! (part of the Silver Lake Coordinator Dream Team 2012, believe it or not!)