Reconnect
Dear Constant Readers,
I spent a good part of the week within site of the Pacific Ocean. That night I stood looking at the dark horizon and listened as the ocean break against the coast like a powerful animal living, breathing and being. I reflected on where I had come from and where all I had gone in my life, and what experiences I had had up till then. It occurred to me that such amazing things don't just happen, and that there is a mighty force in my life, and that there is no need to worry about things I cannot control anyway.
I've never been much of a beach person having been raised in Nebraska. I had never even seen the ocean until I was 17 in Mexico. They saw the ocean is immense and can make you feel insignificant. I think it does, too. But when I stand with the surf breaking around my bare feet I think that I'm standing in the same water that floats around India and Greenland and Texas and the Philippians. For me the ocean is a symbol of how small and interconnected the world is. What power in a thing that can sustain life, be immense but remind you how the world which it makes up is so small.
The reason I was near the beach is because we had Reconnect, a session that lasts a few days for all of the Peace Corps Volunteers in a given group (in our case, Peru 12). We catch up with everyone - the highlight, but also get some technical advice and so forth.
While friendships have formed more solidly between certain groups of people in certain areas, in many ways it felt like being in training again. The people I felt closest to I still felt "closest" to, but there were others that I felt close to as well that I hadn't earlier.
I am planning on going back to the same city we were in to run a half marathon in July. The deciding factor was when I learned that one of my friends who had to go home is planning on coming to run it. Our group has now lost a volunteer from each program: one from Environment, one from Health, and one from Water and Sanitation, but best group, bringing our number to 45 volunteers, still a commendable number.
I've had a problem in the writing of some of my entries, and one I think I've found a solution to. For me, writing takes a certain mood because I want to do more than just convey a message, but try to convey a mood as well. A relationship with the words. In Piura it is hard for me to find that vibe to write in. I have considered writing in my site whenever I feel like it and then just upload it here, but I never did that because I want to write about a cumulative experience of sorts. But I feel my content and quality is suffering, so I'm going to do this. What helped me decide was when another person suggested I write in site as well. I decided that if it had occurred to me and to at least one other person, maybe I shouldn't cast the idea aside so quickly. So I'll try that and see what happens. Therefore hopefully this next entry I write will be more like some of my old ones. Because I feel like I have a lot to say, but just not the words to do it now.
Until that day,
Tristan
I spent a good part of the week within site of the Pacific Ocean. That night I stood looking at the dark horizon and listened as the ocean break against the coast like a powerful animal living, breathing and being. I reflected on where I had come from and where all I had gone in my life, and what experiences I had had up till then. It occurred to me that such amazing things don't just happen, and that there is a mighty force in my life, and that there is no need to worry about things I cannot control anyway.
I've never been much of a beach person having been raised in Nebraska. I had never even seen the ocean until I was 17 in Mexico. They saw the ocean is immense and can make you feel insignificant. I think it does, too. But when I stand with the surf breaking around my bare feet I think that I'm standing in the same water that floats around India and Greenland and Texas and the Philippians. For me the ocean is a symbol of how small and interconnected the world is. What power in a thing that can sustain life, be immense but remind you how the world which it makes up is so small.
The reason I was near the beach is because we had Reconnect, a session that lasts a few days for all of the Peace Corps Volunteers in a given group (in our case, Peru 12). We catch up with everyone - the highlight, but also get some technical advice and so forth.
While friendships have formed more solidly between certain groups of people in certain areas, in many ways it felt like being in training again. The people I felt closest to I still felt "closest" to, but there were others that I felt close to as well that I hadn't earlier.
I am planning on going back to the same city we were in to run a half marathon in July. The deciding factor was when I learned that one of my friends who had to go home is planning on coming to run it. Our group has now lost a volunteer from each program: one from Environment, one from Health, and one from Water and Sanitation, but best group, bringing our number to 45 volunteers, still a commendable number.
I've had a problem in the writing of some of my entries, and one I think I've found a solution to. For me, writing takes a certain mood because I want to do more than just convey a message, but try to convey a mood as well. A relationship with the words. In Piura it is hard for me to find that vibe to write in. I have considered writing in my site whenever I feel like it and then just upload it here, but I never did that because I want to write about a cumulative experience of sorts. But I feel my content and quality is suffering, so I'm going to do this. What helped me decide was when another person suggested I write in site as well. I decided that if it had occurred to me and to at least one other person, maybe I shouldn't cast the idea aside so quickly. So I'll try that and see what happens. Therefore hopefully this next entry I write will be more like some of my old ones. Because I feel like I have a lot to say, but just not the words to do it now.
Until that day,
Tristan
posted by Tristan | 7:39 PM
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