You lucky devils, I have been sharing so much of my life with you this past month. Mostly it's just guilt because I didn't blog at all for a very long time, but also there are just so many little things about living in another country. Right now, it's been Christmas for 15 minutes, and I have been sitting in the presence of other Americans, all of us on our computers, facebooking and emailing and cramming as much mindless internet-time-wasting in the little time we all have internet. We are sitting around a tv which is playing a dvd of a fire burning and listening to the (very small amount of) Christmas music we have between us, with a tiny Christmas tree sitting in the middle of all of us. Tomorrow we will cook a lot of really good food, and continue our Christmas movie marathon, and make mimosas and be merry. We're doing a really good job of making do and spreading Christmas cheer, considering it's a million degrees outside and we are all a million miles away from home.
(To all the Harpers/Coopers that read this, I hope all of you are enjoying cheesy potatoes and summer sausage on crackers and making amazing no bake cookies, and eating Santa's cookies and arranging Christmas presents and stuffing stockings with precious moments ornaments, and watching Christmas Vacation and Santa Claus is coming to Town and It's a Wonderful Life, and loving each other and laughing and generally just being amazing. I miss you, and love you, and am sending all of my love and best wishes your way. And just know that I will expect so many cheesy potatoes waiting for me the second my plane touches down upon my return. Love love love. And a pre-emptive thank you thank you thank you for the care packages that are en route to Benin, I am very very grateful!)
There is no way to explain how my emotions work in this country, or what it's like to be eating antelope while everyone else is baking Christmas cookies and putting the photos on facebook, or having babies and getting engaged and generally being normal, responsible grown-ups. There is no way to explain what it's like to be a stranger to every person I meet here, and to be strange to every person I've left back home. Just know, I appreciate your attention as you follow me on this journey, and your patience as I make it work and share the amazing experiences (and the ridiculous ones and even occasionally the really sad and heartbreaking ones). There is so much I could say about what this experience actually is, and how I actually feel, and what I'm actually doing, and I will try my best to give you these little nuggets from Benin whenever I have internet, but for now, I really just want to wish everyone the merriest of all the Christmases, and the hope that you are enjoying your snow and cookies and white chocolate peppermint bark and loved ones and prettily wrapped presents and real fires in the fireplace. I miss all of those things, but mostly I miss the people that made all of those things amazing for me, and the people that made me who I am today. You, really. I miss you. And I hope the best for you and yours.
But also, I want to leave you with this incredibly eloquent description of life as a Peace Corps volunteer. It has nothing to do with Christmas, and this person doesn't even live in Benin, but he gives such an accurate portrayal of what Peace Corps life is all about, in a better way that I can. Or at least a better way than I can right now.
http://waidsworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/the-real-peace-corps/
(To all the Harpers/Coopers that read this, I hope all of you are enjoying cheesy potatoes and summer sausage on crackers and making amazing no bake cookies, and eating Santa's cookies and arranging Christmas presents and stuffing stockings with precious moments ornaments, and watching Christmas Vacation and Santa Claus is coming to Town and It's a Wonderful Life, and loving each other and laughing and generally just being amazing. I miss you, and love you, and am sending all of my love and best wishes your way. And just know that I will expect so many cheesy potatoes waiting for me the second my plane touches down upon my return. Love love love. And a pre-emptive thank you thank you thank you for the care packages that are en route to Benin, I am very very grateful!)
There is no way to explain how my emotions work in this country, or what it's like to be eating antelope while everyone else is baking Christmas cookies and putting the photos on facebook, or having babies and getting engaged and generally being normal, responsible grown-ups. There is no way to explain what it's like to be a stranger to every person I meet here, and to be strange to every person I've left back home. Just know, I appreciate your attention as you follow me on this journey, and your patience as I make it work and share the amazing experiences (and the ridiculous ones and even occasionally the really sad and heartbreaking ones). There is so much I could say about what this experience actually is, and how I actually feel, and what I'm actually doing, and I will try my best to give you these little nuggets from Benin whenever I have internet, but for now, I really just want to wish everyone the merriest of all the Christmases, and the hope that you are enjoying your snow and cookies and white chocolate peppermint bark and loved ones and prettily wrapped presents and real fires in the fireplace. I miss all of those things, but mostly I miss the people that made all of those things amazing for me, and the people that made me who I am today. You, really. I miss you. And I hope the best for you and yours.
But also, I want to leave you with this incredibly eloquent description of life as a Peace Corps volunteer. It has nothing to do with Christmas, and this person doesn't even live in Benin, but he gives such an accurate portrayal of what Peace Corps life is all about, in a better way that I can. Or at least a better way than I can right now.
http://waidsworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/the-real-peace-corps/
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