Today I am thankful that an unofficial job description of being a Peace Corps Volunteers is to be weird. To be different.
Usually it takes me a while to get comfortable with people to the point I can start being goofy and letting my inner 5 year old come out. But regardless of what I do in my community I'm already considered weird so it's fun to have the freedom (and encouragement) to do things out of the box.
I love acting out a snake in English class to get the kids to practice the 'th' sound. We laugh about the importance of half sticking our tongue out but being careful not to spit on people. Or how the 'z' is like an annoying fly and we all flutter around the classroom. Especially with the little kids I have realized that the goofier you are the more they seem to learn and more fun it is for me.
Living on my own as a single woman is very weird to everyone in my community. They love hearing stories of me freaking out over my scorpions and how I eventually killed them. I'll act out my 'me vs. critters' experiences to groups of varying sizes making sure it's very dramatic.
The Seniors in the Senior Citizen group I help start are wonderful! It's fun to be in charge of doing the exercises because I get to dance around in front and make a fool out of myself to get them to move a bit.
I thought that after graduation I would be all grown up and all that. HA! I remember in my first weeks here I went with my host sister to a paper store and she bought a ledger for her new store while I bought construction paper scissors glue and coloring pencils. And you know what? I LOVE it!
You really were/are a great 5 year old!!!!
ReplyDelete