Every action has an equal and opposite reaction…

A few weeks ago, I reached my maximum frustration point with my counterpart and with my “work” at CODEFEM. My counterpart’s frosty demeanor and lack of communication would have been somewhat tolerable had I been busy with work; however, as my counterpart wasn’t communicating with me at all and as we are the only two people in the office, this made working with her or in general pretty much impossible. Finally, after my counterpart “forgot” to tell me that the office was opening a week later then scheduled and I sat for hours outside the office waiting for her (which had happened before and she would show up a couple hours later and explain that she didn’t have saldo or credit to call me…which made no sense since I called her phones a billion times and it does not take any saldo to answer the phone…but oh well…) I couldn’t take it anymore.

Anyway, long story short I had a meeting with my host country agency (CODEFEM) and my program director from Peace Corps, and ever since then things have been better…in fact, my counterpart has been creepily nice…it is really freaking me out…I am scared that any day now she will just snap and go back to not talking to me. But I am trying to take advantage of her change of heart and do as much as I can to help out so I can prove that I am indeed an asset to the organization…Anyway, things are looking up for me at the moment.

I still sometimes have those “what the hell am I doing here” or “can I really last in this country for 2 years?” moments, but after talking to many other volunteers, I have been assured that this is normal (I am not crazy! well…you know what I mean).
It is always going to be a constant challenge. There will be moments of sheer joy and even more moments of utter despair (maybe that is a bit of an overstatement…but you get the idea). There will be ups and downs…There already have been many. I knew all this before I signed up…and yet, each time it is a surprise…but it is those (rare) happy surprises, like having a woman give me an avocado at a taller (workshop) to thank me for my help that make it all worth it…
I think…

I mean…it was a damn good avocado…! I hope someone gives me mangoes at my next taller…maybe then it will all be worth it…=)