Perspective

When you live somewhere for long enough, it eventually feels like home. We've just been realizing recently that we finally feel settled here and that Samoa is our home, which takes a fair amount of time given the displacement one goes through during Peace Corps training and the time following it, plus for me the additional move in May. It's a really nice feeling to have things settle in a routine and to be able to appreciate the small familiarities that you get when you're living in "your" environment. And overall I must say we definitely got the plush end of the stick in terms of Peace Corps placement that's about as upscale as one could imagine. We live quite comfortably with walls and running water, electricity and a refrigerator, an oven, a laptop with a decent stash of movies, and proximity to town. I'd almost say our life is luxurious compared to what I was expecting when I enlisted myself for this adventure. I think this is aided by the fact that it's been almost a year since I experienced anything remotely different. This week we are housesitting for a couple that is from New Zealand and works here with a regional insurance agency. They live... like we might live if we were back home in America. And it's amazing how different it feels. So-called everyday appliances like warm water, a washing machine and dryer, a dish washer, a tv with satellite reception, a microwave, a dog (not so much an appliance, but a staple of any truly meaningful existence in my opinion)- these all seem like such fabulous luxuries to us coming from our humble home. They even have a ping pong table and a swimming pool! It's very wierd thinking about all of the components of their completely normal home as these extravagant curiosities that are completely and totally beyond reality to us living here. I think it's an interesting first taste of the strangeness that will accompany returning home to the states next year, where all of these things that you grew up with as regular parts of your daily life are now viewed through a completely different lens. (How much power is that dryer using? We only get 60 tala worth a month...) Needless to say we are quite enjoying our brief respite in the lap of luxury and western civilization. Yesterday I got home from work and jumped in the pool to refresh and wind down from the day. I could definitely get used to this kind of living. Too bad my Peace Corps "salary" amounts to under $350 US a month :) Ah well, dreams for the future...