Back in the States

Again... I'm behind on posting... this is from awhile ago.

A little dreary-eyed, back in the sanitary smell of airports, 25 hours after my flight left from Oliver Tambo in Johannesburg, my kudu jerky seized by customs agents (12 oz of jerky- spiced dehydrated meat…what could be the harm in that?) a few steps more and I was home. Well… back in the states.

The notion of home is somewhat an abstract concept to me as a Peace Corps Volunteer. My house is in South Africa, my job is there, yet my life is exists on both sides of the Atlantic. I cannot distance myself from the goings on in the states, to do so would deny my roots there, which is something which I am not supposed to do as a Peace Corps Volunteer. America made me who I am, not staying in contact with those on the other side would seem like denying part of myself. Peace Corps in that sense seems impermanent, a fraction of my life, a life I know will involve a return to the states. My life is and isn’t in South Africa. My job is here and I enjoy it a great deal, but nothing can compare to being together with family and friends to the degree that I had in the states.

But there I was, striding off the airplane and glancing around the baggage claim for my family. It was wonderful to see them. In a way it was like coming home from college, a short visit between semesters, a slow but predictable advance away from the time I could call home the place where my parent’s live.

Since coming back for this visit, I have had the question, well, does it feel different? How has it been adjusting back to life in the States?

The only part that I find a little disconcerting, besides my little brother being taller than me, is driving on the right side of the road. This is worse when I’m in the passenger’s seat, as that would be the driver’s seat in South Africa. I need to remember wide left turns and small right ones. It helps when there are lines and arrows painted on the road, and I’m sure I’ll get used to it again after a few days.

Everything else, the vastness, the infrastructure, the wealth are all familiar sights to my eyes. To be sure, I see America in a different light. I see the opportunities present here, the business infrastructure, the transportation systems, the vastness, the land use. I also see the rampant consumerism, the sense of entitlement of the best and the latest no matter the cost. This may only be particular to my area of the States, but I have not traveled to any portion of this country where that is not present.

It’s amazing how much can happen in two weeks, and how minuscule two weeks can be in the large scheme of things. To think that my Peace Corps training consisted of just four two week periods in unfathomable, so much was learned, so much was done. Then at site, especially during the mandated observation period the weeks seemed to crawl by. I live in a fairly remote area; the houses in my village are spread apart.

Again in less that two weeks I will be back on the plane flying back across the Atlantic, but for now it’s a whirlwind seeing my family, seeing a few friends, doing a few chores here and there, going to a graduation and somehow also relaxing and getting used to the time zone before needing to readjust in those short weeks.