I think my timeline for being relatively calm, cool and collected about being home and unemployed has expired. I’m now in full-on existential crisis mode…what am I going to do with my life? What do I want to be when I grow up? Where do I want to live? Too many never-ending questions with no clear answers. The thing is, when I was in Peace Corps, no matter how unproductive or poor I was, at least I could always say, “I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer, that’s what I do”. And there was that lovely tight-knit community of PCV’s in which no matter how crappy your day was, there was always a friend somewhere nearby with just as crapy of a story to tell (neighbor offered money for sex, somebody poisoned dog, mugged in town, in a khoumbi accident, etc. etc.) and no matter what there were always chores to do if you really wanted to stay afloat. This is really the clincher for me I think. On an average weekend in the village here’s what I’d find myself doing to the point of exhaustion:
- Laundry by hand, average 2 hours (scrubbing, rinsing, hanging to dry, dumping out buckets of dirty water, collecting laundry from the line)
- Sweeping the floors
- Washing the floors on hands and knees with a bucket of soapy water and a rag
- Dishes (no running water, dump out dirty dishwater outside)
- Shooing goats away from the rubbish bin and laundry water
- Boiling and filtering water for drinking
- Walking to the shop to buy bread for the week’s sandwiches
- Cooking, if electricity on, on a hot plate, no counter space, one knife, one pan, etc.
- Bathing myself (pre-heating the water, bucket-bath style)
