Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The most ridiculous thing of all…


is that I am now a proud and happy owner of an air conditioner!  In Peace (or Posh rather) Corps!  Ridiculous, I know.  To straighten things out, I didn’t buy it for myself but was rather gifted it by a generous benefactor who happens to be from my village and very good friends with my old language trainer.  Last hot season I met up with the two of them and had lunch in Sandema, during which he was very impressed that I was able to live here during hot season and vowed to get me an air conditioner for next hot season.  Even though people make a lot of broken promises, I remember vaguely thinking he seemed pretty serious about it and maybe was a man of his word but I didn’t really think about it too much.  I even told him maybe it be better to get the a/c for the computer rather than me.  Lo and behold one beautiful day in February the unit was delivered and later installed.  I started using it soon after Valentine’s Day (best.present.ever) and it really has made a world of difference in my sleeping in super high temps.  This amazing gift makes me reflect on how sometimes when you serve you end up being served yourself; it’s all very humbling.   I’ve gotten way more out of my Peace Corps service than I could ever have given and not just because of the air conditioner.  It’s just a physical representation of the many blessings and experiences I’ve had here. 

I’ll end this post with an encouraging passage about service from a great book (my fiance's favorite in fact) My Grandfather’s Blessings: Service has a life of its own.  A single act of kindness may have a long trajectory and touch those we will never meet or see.  Something that we casually offer may move through a web of connection far beyond ourselves to have effects that we may have never imagined.  And so each of us may have left far more behind us than we may ever know. 

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