On my walk home from school a couple weeks ago, I
met this Chinese man who works in the gold mine close to my town. He seemed stunned to come across a white
girl, asking me where I was from and what I was doing here. He seemed even more surprised to learn that I
was here by myself asking me, “Aren’t you afraid?”
Now this is a question I got a lot from family and
friends before leaving for Peace Corps and frequently during those first few
weeks at site from people in my community.
Still, over seven months later, I am not quite sure how to respond to
this question. Sometimes I still can’t
believe I, a 23 year old girl just out of college, am living alone in
Murrupula, Mozambique teaching in Portuguese.
Of course that’s scary!
So yes sir, of course I’m afraid, at least
sometimes. But like anything else, like
moving anywhere new, it takes time to adjust, to get comfortable in a new
setting. And yeah maybe this is a little
more extreme than say moving to a new city or even a new state, but one day at
a time, you really can get used to anything.
When there is no one else around, you figure it out and make do with
what you have.
Besides, I frequently think to myself, at least I
have cell phone service…
No comments:
Post a Comment