“You’re a lot tougher than you thought you were”—Peace Corps Zambia, September 17th, 2023
A Stranger in a Strange Land
Hello friends and family,
I planned on writing a long and thoughtful post about becoming jaded from service, but I chose to save that for next week. I’m delaying, in part, because I’m worn out from visiting the new volunteers. They asked me so many questions that I couldn’t finish some of my meals on time. But the real reason that I’m delaying writing something good is that I’m hungover, sleep-deprived, and can’t be bothered with real thoughts today. (Just so you know, drinking is the universal pass-time amongst volunteers, so I’m in good company.)
Instead, I’ll just write about one of the last things I said to the new volunteers. We were eating lunch on my last full day with them. One of the health volunteers, a blond girl in her early 20s, put down her fork and asked: “So, like, how bad does it really get?” Everyone around the table paused and turned towards me.
“Listen,” I said, “I’m not going to sugar coat it. It can get really, really tough. It will be a lot harder than you think it will be.” No one spoke, and no one looked surprised.
“But,” I continued, “when those bad days come, you’ll realize that you’re a lot tougher than you thought you were.”
“Huh,” she said, “I like that.”
“It’s true.” I said. We finished our lunch then went to the next session.
That’s all I got. I’m going to finish my coffee then die. See you all next week.