One Wild and Precious Life

I had originally planned to continue writing about the things I took for granted, but then yesterday happened and I decided that I wanted share the day with y’all.  A little context first—my PCV bestie Alexis is currently living with me as her house is infested with rats.  Luckily a teacher from her school works in my community so she has a ride to/from school every day.  But it was still quite a week—so we decided to try for a nice day out and about on Saturday.   It turned out to be one of those rare days when everything aligned for us--honestly, it was the first time since I've been here that I've had a day like this!  As I was closing the gate to my house, I saw a bus coming up the road.  This never happens!  But what it meant was that we didn’t have to walk up the giant hill to go wait for the bus.  When we got to town and got on our next bus, we only had to sit on it for 5 minutes before we left!  That also never happens, LOL.   We got to the beach and it was just us and

 Today marks the end of my 11th month here.  In some ways, I can't believe that I'm approaching the 1 year mark and in other ways it feels like I left home a lifetime ago.  As that one year mark approaches, I've been looking back at a list I started when I first got here--"Things I took for granted." These were things that I didn't have here and realized I took for granted at home.  Looking back on it now, I'm really glad that I did.  In part it helps me remember what the really early days were like but it also helps me to appreciate all the things that I've had to navigate.  I also remember saying to myself on multiple occasions "In three months this won't seem like such a big deal." For some things, that has definitely been true (e.g. having no street names, house numbers, etc to use when you're trying to find some place).  But for others, they are still challenges--and they may very well be challenges for the entirety of my service