Peace Corps- a group activity?

When I was first notified that I was accepted into the Peace Corps, amongst the first things I did was 1.) notify my job, 2.)plan a trip to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, 3.)break the news to my family, and 4.) try and prepare myself for a life of solitude.

There were times when I would drive in my car and purposefully turn off the radio not pick up an incoming call (even though it wasn't illegal at the time to drive and talk...it now is, thankfully)all in preparation for the most challenging (and lonely) 26 months of my life. Flash forward a few months...I've arrive in Morocco and am attending one of my first trainings, led by a experienced Peace Corps volunteer (who happens to be retired), and her story includes the words "these HAVE been some of the loneliest months of my life". So, needless to say, all along I was preparing for an experience of isolation. By isolation, I mean an experience where I would not have access to other people from the United States, to the comforts of USA (food, music, and certainly not entertainment), and a drastic changes in work culture ( I was expecting an environment where collaborating was not an option).

Well...I was wrong.

I could not be more wrong. Even within my first week in country, when it was announced that we would be spending our two-month training periods in groups of 6/7, I was reminded of the fact that Peace Corps (at least Peace Corps Morocco is almost ENTIRELY a group experience). Now, when I thought Peace Corps, I thought of living on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere where you were speaking a language not known to more than a couple thousand people, and with relatively no one to lean on but yourself. I thought...in the tough times, you would have to dig within and rely on the "inner you" to get you through the experience. That was one the reasons I was drawn to the Peace Corps. I wanted to really see who I was on the inside and I wanted an experience that would help mold me into a stronger person (mental and physically). A year before I officially joined the Peace Corps (May 2009), I ran a half-marathon (13.1 miles...about 7.1 miles more than I ever would have liked to have run at once) despite the fact that my body and my mind were telling me that I hate to run and I had no business training months and months for something neither of them wanted to do. But I did it because I figured, if I can prove to myself that I can do this task (something I never wanted or thought I could do), I could begin to think about what it would be like to do the Peace Corps.

So, I was right in two ways. My Peace Corps would leave me in a fairly remote area, where I have to get up at 5am to find transport down the mountain-the only departure time of the day). I was right that the language I speak was used by only a few thousand people in the world, and I was only partly right when I thought I would only have me, myself, and I to lean on....and I'm thankful for this last one.

To sum it up quickly, the Peace Corps community has helped me in almost every aspect of my time here:

Having other people going through the same experience that I am has been a huge emotional support. Every time someone tels me that "I don't know anything", despite the fact that up until that point in the conversation, we have been speaking a language that I had never even heard of until 10 month ago, I know that that happens to everyone. Having other people, doing similar work that I am, has given me a sounding board to bounce ideas off of and an opportunity to learn from others mistakes. Professionally, having other people (from varying backgrounds and experiences) has helped to push me to be a more productive and driver person, which is almost opposite of the environment that I work in-due to the slow pace of progress and the many steps of every minuscule tasks. Having other people here has meant that I have someone to dance with as I try and follow Micheal Jackson's choreography in "This is It" (one of my favorite stress reducing activities), that I have someone to talk to when I simply CANNOT speak another word of Tashlaheit (when I'm on brain overload), and that I can bake carrot cake (and not have to look at skeptical faces taint the beauty that is one of my favorite deserts). Most importantly, running into other Peace Corps volunteers (on the street, at a meeting, randomly at the train station in Marrakech) means that I have someone else (over 200 "someone else"s) to help remind me that, no matter how hard it may seem at times, I am living out an experience that so many people don't have the opportunity to. I am living my dream and I have to live it extra hard because there are millions of people in the U.S. and across the world who will probably never get the chance to give up two years of their life to work as a super super undercompensated volunteer, experience a new culture, learn a language that few people learn as a language other than their first, and live in a place that doesn't even exist on most maps. I'm blessed...and I need to be reminded of that everyday. I don't see Peace Corps volunteers everyday...but once every two or three weeks is enough for me. I've clearly lost most of my social skills..it usually takes a few hours of interactions with other PCVs for me to remember all of the social cues that have been ingrained in me, but hey...this is the Peace Corps after all...

With that said, tomorrow morning (yes, at 6am-when its still dark on top of the mountain and the dogs are barking...loud) I will head to a nearby town to meet with the other PCVs in the area for a regional meeting. We'll discuss everything from innovative ways and places to have health education, the upcoming HIV/STD outreach at a large regional festival, and exchange as much junk(movies, books, clothes, etc.)as humanly possible within two days.

I may be on a haitus for a while (I have to soak up all of the English and all of the U.S.A. time as possible), but I'm sure I'll have alot to tell afterwards. Happy Early Martin Luther King Jr. Day!