Some of the Challenges of Adjustment

I was writing a letter to a friend, and these are some of the challenges I tried to describe...I thought it might be interesting.

Peace Corps has been difficult for many reasons. I think the hardest thing by far is that we aren’t allowed to express our thoughts concerning anything political here. Even in this email to you, there are things I can’t talk about politically. Not having that freedom of speech is a real challenge here. I understand that we would not be able to perform our duties here effectively if we were able to speak our mind, but it is really difficult to take the fifth sometimes.

Also, the pace of life and change here is very slow compared to America. Or maybe not slow, just different. We have like a week or so where we are too busy to do anything, and then there could be an entire month where everything you schedule falls through. Generally our priorities don’t always match up with theirs. For instance, right now the World Cup is happening in South Africa. Soccer here is more important than football in the states, so planning anything right now would be futile. Even meeting with teachers has proven difficult. There are stores that just aren’t open, presumably because the owner went to South Africa for the World Cup. Its intense, but problematic for development work.

Until a few months ago, it was general culture shock that was also a big challenge. Not understanding most of what people say, and then still not knowing certain rules until you do the wrong thing has been a challenge. I think just now I am in this phase where I not only miss things in the States, but relishing things that are here which I know I will miss when I get back. One example is bread. I really miss nice wheat bread. The wheat bread here isn’t ground as finely as in America, so you get these random bits of husk that just have a weird texture. They also don’t make those really nice flavors like honey wheat, and rye, and the one with the sunflower seeds in it. I miss those, and I think about them more than I should. However, what they do have here is fresh, HOT bread in pretty much any grocery store. Our host family has a market, and they get bread delivered every day, and sometimes it is still hot. That is wonderful. There is nothing like bread so hot it might burn a hole through the plastic. Anyway, I know I will miss that, so I am relishing it now.