Whereas back home I might be comparing notes with friends over happy hour at a well lit bar with deep fried apetizers, (oh how the food pornography overtakes me again...) about how great the benefits of my new job are, or how much square footage my home has, or how horrible traffic or the weather is, in the Peace Corps we have some very different topics of conversation/ bragging shop talk.
So I was with a few other PC’s and we were doing what PC’s do when they’re together, which is talk about how rough we have it, and then when we’ve tired of the verbal sparing with each other, compare how hard we have it to how much more difficult this is than anyone in any other area of the country, world, universe has it. Or perhaps this is just what we do in the delta force. Last week was the DMSAC meeting, which stands for District Multi-Sectoral AIDS Committee, and it was occasion for all the volunteers in the delta to get together and see who everyone is and what we are all doing. As is the tendency in Botswana, not much else occurred at the meeting.
Since the newbies (Bots 7) are on lock down, we hadn’t been able to evaluate the Bots 6 that are dispersed throughout the area and vice versa. The DMSAC meeting gave us a prime opportunity to size each other up, and what a lovely little meet and greet we had. There’s crazy J, who is on the peer support and diversity network, which is the arm of PCV’s thats mission is to keep the newbies from ET-ing, and to keep everyone generally sane. We had met before, but proceeded to hit it off fabulously, and I can tell he’s going to be my new best friend. Then there is Ricky, the 6.5 transfer, who is a bit of a recluse, and Mormon (ethically at least) to boot. There’s the couple, Z and K, who are too cute for words. Along with the couple in Gumare, we make up the delta force, the north western portion of the country who arguably have it worst and simultaneously best. It’s these types of dramatic contradictions that I’ve come to live for in this experience.
So we bonded, and at some point in time crazy J and I came to be doing laundry in his bathtub. As the water runs in, we begin comparing notes, talking about how many times we had worn each particular item of clothing prior to this washing, and whose laundry was contributing more to the filthy sludge that was filling the bathtub. I’m newer to the country, and haven’t yet given up all my cleanly ways, although really, many of them are quite a ways out the door, so I can’t really hang when it comes to this competition. We argued about technique, whereas he likes to put in his laundry and dance on it, I like to use a combination of the lavender soap I use on my body and detergent followed with copious amounts of febreeze.
After we exhausted ourselves with the laundry (both the washing and the one upping) we moved on to craziest modes of transportation and strangest recipes, and the ever popular “who has gone longer without water/electricity/cell reception in their village” competition. We talked till we were blue in the face and ate the standard PC meal of pasta (in the dark as the electricity had gone out) and went to bed, assured at last of the fact that we are each living the best life we possibly can, and grateful for this experience. Hell when I get home I’ll have happy hour stories that will beat you all for YEARS!!!!
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