Yo, teach!

The Peace Corps is a learning experience. Say, for instance, it teaches me how to gracefully descend from a flatbed truck without falling on my butt in the mud, or that fresh flowers put on my table by the neighborhood children make me so happy, and that listening to the music on my iPod makes me miss home. But I've also learned that if I sit still and quietly enough on the beach, a giant crab will burst out of the sand beside me, and that with enough experimentation and ingenuity, I too can knit a hat for my neighbor's baby. Oh no, the Peace Corps experience doesn't just teach us about liking floral arrangements or the habits of local crustaceans-it teaches us about ourselves. Like, that I've always been on Mozambican time, and that sitting around all day visiting with neighbors is what I've always rather have been doing. But most of all-and please allow me this moment of weakness to be cliché-it teaches me everyday that I'm stronger than I ever thought I was... Oh, and also that scrunched up notebook paper works as an adequate substitute for toilet paper.