EAGLE VS. STOKES

In a few short and at the same time very long days I will be voyaging home for the first time in over a year.   With mixed emotions about my first half of my service behind me I cannot swim against the current of being slightly reflective and sentimental looking back at the last time I was home and for all that I have experienced here.   As I pack my now relatively tattered wardrobe into my suitcase and glance through photos of my family and friends I am not only feeling anticipatory but nervous, anxious, and grateful all the while. I stare back at the   twelveplus months behind me and see a roller coaster, but who of us who has ridden the coaster has not enjoyed it although terrorized at times during the ride.   We may pledge not to ever do it again but somewhere, at some time in our minds there are fond memories.   For me the ride continues to improve.   We are the blessed, those away from our homes and feeling like we are now at home at the same t...

It is in fact a hard reality that the bathroom situations here in Peru are simply not as they are in the States…and for this I pen this entry knowing that the above statement cannot make someone not experiencing them appreciate it more or less if they have not walked a mile in the shoes of those who have. Before I go any further it should also be said that my bathroom situation within my home here is not a bad one and an effort to keep the previously mentioned bathroom clean is maintained..by no means is my home here a dirty one but it is in fact different…..I have lizards in my room, rats, and mice on occasion….cockroaches are and have always been one of Gods most disturbing creatures to me…..hence my fear of the night bathroom trip has emerged. My room is on the second floor at the very back of the second floor…my room is nice…in fact the nicest in the entire house…..my two “brothers” sleep in two rooms further towards the center stair case that leads down to the first floor…...

                        It had been 17 years since-I now hold 34 years, doing the simple math-a half life since the last time in the chair. I was Seventeen years old walking down a side street in Osaka, Japan two days before my return to the States.  After a long stint away from my family, friends, and a life that was left in pieces.  During my time in Japan I put myself back together the best I could emotionally-Isolated without the language I formed unlikely friendships.  Communicating with hand gestures, sports, and drawings resembling that of a six year old.  I began drawing the same figure in the second grade and have never adjusted it regardless of circumstances see below                             regardless of t...

It had been 17 years since-I now hold 34 years, doing the simple math-a half life since the last time in the chair. I was Seventeen years old walking down a side street in Osaka, Japan two days before my return to the States. After a long stint away from my family, friends, and a life that was left in pieces. During my time in Japan I put myself back together the best I could emotionally-Isolated without the language I formed unlikely friendships. Communicating with hand gestures, sports, and drawings resembling that of a six year old. I began drawing the same figure in the second grade and have never adjusted it regardless of circumstances see below regardless of this somewhat difficult yet magical time my hair began to exit my dome (note this hair was blonde and luxurious) at a pace similar to the evacuation at Saigon. To realize this at this age was traumatizing to say the least of it. Laying on my bamboo floor every eve running my hand h...

Any decision of note in life is to involve doubt and with doubt comes risk and with risk reward and repercussion. The further I go in this process the clearer I see these things….I walked away from an above average salary and an above average lifestyle for one fraught with frustration and elation. Some would call that an even trade- I would state life without extremes as sleepwalking…frustration and elation average out to normal but within the average you never experience the highs and lows I believe we are intended for. I cannot describe the feeling of growing close with a group of strangers who I now consider family in many ways, I cannot describe the embrace of a member of my community after returning from an absence, and I can certainly not describe sitting around a town square with my fellow volunteers and our Peruvian friends sharing drinks and life as it comes to us. I have always held tight to the idea of one time around…and more and more I feel the sentiment within t...

    It is December 12th here in Illimo, Peru.  It is baking hot and 1pm.  As my part of the United States faces  the beginning of a cold Winter I face a daily dance on the Sun.  One and a half hours removed from the coast and sitting hours from the equator my town begins to bake about 9:30 AM.  A breeze comes in around 3:30 and cools things down, it is still pleasant at night…ideal sleeping conditions with a full open window and fan.  In my off time I have been reading a book titled Guns, Germs, and Steel-the fates of human societies.  Which is a historical break down of how our world ended up as it did why certain countries conquered others, where food production developed, and how our society is as it is presently.  It was a grand book, in my other free time I have been watching Trueblood the HBO vampire series.  This is my last week of classes before the youth encounter their vacation so things have slowed down a bit for me…....

    In a few days it will mark three months that I have been in my site. I live in Illimo-a mid size pueblo in Northern Peru. It lies within the department of Lambayeque-a region known for its Archeology, good food, and for friendly people. Midsize town here means 5,000 people with an additional 3,000 in the surrounding smaller areas , out in the more campo style landscape known as Caserios in English it falls under the word hamlet-when I here hamlet I think of a small French village two hours outside of Paris…this is obviously not the case. It falls short in being esthetically appealing from first glance but its beauty it seems lies right below. It would be thunderously absurd to give a summary on a town or people after living in it for three months and not understanding most of the dialogue going on around me. I am also aware that any failures or successes are initial and time will show the real value of my presence here for myself and the town. The last three days here...