Back in the groove...

... yet wrapping things up.

I feel like this entry could go in any number of directions, so at the very least, I want to begin with a little light comedy, courtesy of one Mr. Aaron "Steve McQueen" Miller.

Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival: Tom Sellecks

With only 48 days left of my 1,000 here in El Salvador, I've come to a strange point in my Peace Corps experience. One that I'm at a loss for words to describe. Don't know why; I knew it was coming.

I'm happy, and overloaded with work, but in a good way, you know? Yet earlier tonight I actually got annoyed, not snapped, just felt a quick pang of peeve pass over me, with a good friend who repeatedly consoled me for what she kept calling my homesickness.

We had been chatting, and I mentioned how it's funny how the things you used to hate take on different meanings under different circumstances. Like how my neighbors' roosters - oh god those awful, goddamn roosters - I will actually miss when I'm no longer here. Yeah, I know. For those of you who've actually had the pleasure of staying at Casa de Cohen in the mountains of northwestern El Salvador, you must be amazed. Those guys probably kept you up or at least scared the shit out of you probably half a dozen times. But yeah, I'll miss hearing those little bastards, and the approaching wave of rooster crows coming from the next community over at 3 am or some other ungodly hour when I should be sleeping and not awake to hear such things.

Maybe what got to me was the dismissive tone of her voice; the way she didn't quite get what I was talking about, nor did it really concern her. Or that she assumed I couldn't wait to get back to the states. I don't know. It might be impossible for any volunteer to really convey how it feels to package up their life of two of three years in a community and move on to supposedly better and brighter things, while leaving their friends and family behind.

Or maybe things were just lost in translation; they often are.

But it's true. That realization that hits all volunteers at some point. That we only get one Peace Corps experience. And mine is just a few short weeks from ending.