Fish Out of Water

"There are no foreign lands. It is only the traveler that is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

After a slowdown during the holiday season, life is starting to return to its normal pace (which is still pretty damn slow). Diagnostic work is getting thrown together and prepped for our upcoming 3-month training. Hard to believe we’ve been in our sites for 3 months already. And now 5 months in country?! ¡Diablo!

Aside from the pace of daily life, the pace in which I am devouring books has returned to form. Books have been a constant in my early life in my site. They offer a source of entertainment to fill the void in life sans internet or television. They give me an opportunity to think in English for but a few hours a day and give my brain a break from the cerebral overexertion that comes with living life in a second language. They provide a source of further escapism from the already escapist lifestyle I live down here.

I recently read a wonderful book called Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri that consists of a number of short stories about Indian immigrants living and adjusting to life in America. I’ve found myself reading a lot about the immigrant experience lately. I suppose it’s because in some ways I am living a quasi-immigrant experience myself. I have multiple ‘fish out of water’ experiences in each passing day. I find myself for the first time in my life a member of the minority. In fact, aside from Haitians, I am the only minority and certainly the only gringo in my community. It is a novel and alien feeling to see things from this end of the spectrum.

My life is presently lived in somewhat of a fishbowl. Eventually the novelty of having a local gringo will surely wear off. In time the members of my community will learn how truly uninteresting I am. Sooner or later this world will feel natural while the States become foreign. For now I relish the feeling of being somewhere unfamiliar. Of having an experience comparable to that of Ms. Lahiri’s characters but rather than moving to America, I’ve moved from it. Of feeling and taking in newness everyday. Of learning a new language and way of life. Of being in the classroom of the world.