Home, again

As Matthew said, the posts will keep coming. I don't feel compelled to write as often as I did when I was in Peru, probably because I can share stuff easier than before. Anyway, there is more to write about, so here's my turn:

Towards the end of our time in Peru, I surprised myself by how homesick I started feeling. Because I was excited to return home to my family, I didn't put much attention towards leaving our small community with some closure.

Matthew and I spent our final week painting furiously with our new English friends (and I fought a stubborn migrane), instead of volunteering in the classrooms. We tried to take advantage of the sunlight as much as possible because it was dark by 6 p.m. Aside from talking with curious children who constantly checked in on the mural status, we didn't hang out with the students very much. Late Friday night I realized that we didn't make any official announcement about our leaving and Saturday morning was particularly difficult for me because our sobrina Dana didn't have a clue we were leaving that afternoon. I felt awful.

Before heading to Cusco for the 21 hour bus trip to Lima, we made our way around Oropesa taking photos of important places. Eventually we headed to school to photograph the murals. As we walked closer, we heard the familar sounds of recess. What? On a Saturday morning? Apparently I hadn't understood the conversation that had taken place the day before among the teachers. The students had to make up a day of school that had been canceled earlier in the month.

We photographed the murals and made our way to see what was going on with the students and their athletic-themed make up day. We were fortunate enough to see the preschoolers play a kindergarten class in a 10 minute soccer game, and to have the opportunity to talk and visit with some of our favorite students and teachers. The realization that Matthew and I were leaving without finishing the murals or really saying goodbye made me feel like we were abandoning our volunteer positions in the middle of the school year, although I had planned to leave in early June when we started our journey in January. I am thankful we got to see the students one last time.

So here I am, home again after a crowded combi, a taxi, a long overnight bus ride, two flights, a short train trip, and finally a megabus.  I'm back where I started, in the house where I grew up, living with my parents and one of my younger sisters.

I made it to Marie's graduation (the reason I wanted to come home at such a specific time), where I saw both of my sisters and all four of my grandparents again for the first time since January. It's to be expected that I have been experiencing mixed feelings about being back. I cried saying goodbye to our family in Oropesa and got teary seeing my family again. It's been nice to have hot water just by turning a faucet, to have an immense amount of reading material at my disposal, and to have a coffee pot in the kitchen. It's been strange to flush my toilet paper (or to have a toilet seat at all), to be able to drink water that comes from fountains and faucets instead of buying bottles, and to be able to put on functioning seat belts.

I'm working on adjusting my whole thinking process. The other day I didn't realize that if I bought a gallon of milk (non-evaporated, actual cow milk!) at the gas station on the way to the library, I'd have to take it home to refrigerate it. What? Refrigerate the milk? Oh yeah, refrigeration, and it's summer. I also couldn't wrap my mind around the need for a can opener, much less an electric can opener. Wow. In Peru (this is how I begin many of my sentences now), the only cans that were opened contained evaporated milk and we opened them with a knife, most often one missing its sharpened tip.

I'm back in Columbus, where the scenery is exceptionally flat, reflecting on my crazy experience in Peru, reconnecting with people I haven't caught up with in a long time, and deciding how to live my life. Not surprisingly, I'm drawn towards work with children. Poco a poco, I'm making progress and figuring things out.