1 year togo anniversary

A year ago today I first met in Philadelphia all the people with whom I would be a Togo Peace Corps Volunteer. We had staging and talked about all the things we were excited about (learning new languages, helping people, trying new foods, making friends, planting gardens, empowering girls...) and things we were scared of (being far away from home, snakes, giant spiders, being isolated, getting sick...). I watched the first episode of season 5 of the office that night, had my last meal of yummy chinese food, watermelon and chocolate milk, and passed out in a comfortable hotel bed with too many pillows, a giant comforter and the quiet humming of the AC in the background, scared out of my mind and wondering exactly what it was I was doing with my life.

A year later, I'm sitting here in my village in the mountains,sweating in my favorite pagne dress, sitting next to my best friend and dog Max,trying to type a blog about all of the accomplishments and failures of the last year on a quite sporadic wireless internet connection. I was just telling my mom the other day of how extremely content and proud with my life and myself I am. There is so much still that I need to work on (personally and professionally) but I am loving the challenge. Keep in mind that you happened to have caught me on a "good" day. There are a lot of challenges and days of doubt and I still have that constant longing to see family and friends, for that AC and cold sweet tea and disponibility of oh so bad for you fast food,etc; all the comforts of the life I was once used to. But there is nothing I would trade for the friendships and awesome moments that I've made and have had here. As trite as it is to say, seeing as it is the Peace Corps motto, my service so far really has been the hardest job i'll ever love.

If any of you new trainees are in Philadelphia tonight reading this...get excited!!