Dear Family & Friends, 

I have officially been a Peace Corps volunteer for over a year. Or, I officially have less than a year left of my service. Whichever way you want to spin it. 

Over the course of the last week, I’ve spun from “I’ve been at site for a year!” to ”Oh my god, I don’t even have a year left!”  Out of no conscious choice, I find myself counting down. I took in the views from the top of the mountain and now I’m looking at the scraggly descent. Time keeps moving ahead. But before I leave the mountain top, I’d like to take a good long look at the accomplishments of one year. 

In July 2023, I visited my village for the first time. This two-week visit was meant to familiarize us with our new home, let us meet work partners and tutors, and note any housing issues. I was incredibly nervous in the days leading up to visit. I felt this huge weight of first impressions and starting my service on the right foot.

Knowing the people in my village as I do now, I think all my favorite people must have also been a bundle of nerves too. Monsieur Tchangani especially would have been concerned about getting everything just right. 

When Didier drove us to towards my site, all I knew was that I was on some anonymous red dirt road. Suddenly there was this crowd of people cheering and waving branches and palm fronds around. I was so confused — had we almost run into a wedding or crashed some kind of big party? Didier grinned at me and welcomed me. My Community Integration Facilitator had already leaped from the Land Cruiser before it really struck me the celebration was for me. 

I have never before or since been the center of such joy, attention, and celebration. I was in a daze as I joined the parade. Women tried to get me to stamp-dance my way forward to the rhythm of their song. I was given hands to shake. And when we arrived at the compound, the crowd overfilled the seats under the mango trees, children were climbing into the lime trees or using each other as props to see better. All eyes were on me. Smiles too.

When I look back at the photos from this first day I am amazed to see so many faces I know. The massive crowd has changed into my neighborhood. The austere chiefs changed into my Kabye dads and uncles. The women singing and encouraging me to dance are the mamans I pull weeds with every Tuesday morning in the ginger field. The road we walked down  I have now walked along hundreds of times. It’s as familiar to me as my living room. Under those mango trees I have attended meetings, shelled peanuts with Maman, and napped away the hottest hours. 

There’s a strange dream-like quality in the comparison between the memory and photos. All of these people were strangers then and its as if in the memory they still are strangers. Looking at the photos, I can rewrite our friendships to beginning that day. I will never be as wide-eyed and new as I was on that march to my new home. 

The greatest accomplishment from this past year is to have come to know this place, these people: to distinguish from the great swirl of joyful welcome the faces of ongoing friendship. 

Although I am slipping in to a “counting down” view of time, I am committing to counting up my accomplishments over the course of the next year. From growth in my character (tougher than ever!) to growth in my garden, from new languages to new understandings of myself, there’s plenty I have learned over the course of a year. And there’s plenty more to learn.

A year ago, I did not know all of what this place and experience held for me. And now, I only know the half of it. 

I am looking forward to relishing this second year. Among other volunteers I have formed great friendships I did not expect. I’m looking forward to leaning in to those. School is beginning again and I am starting the academic year more organized and prepared. I know the rainy season will end and begin again before I leave. I will talk all the pleasure I can in the greens and blues of that time. I have so many garden ideas. I’ll relish in knowing that I will continue to grow more and more into myself. 

Sending my love to everyone,

J

P.S. enjoy some photos from Mid-Service Conference and of course at least one of Zorro 🙂