Things I’ve Learned Update

Month Five: 13 Nov.- 12 Dec. 2008
- It’s usually best just to own up to stuff. Even when it’s embarrassing.
- To wear lipstick
- To “invigilate” exams
- Lots of PC acronyms (PCV, GTOT, PCT, PST, LPE, HCN)
- That the volunteers in other SA groups (i.e. 16,17) are AWESOME!
- How to get to Pretoria and to 1322 without being totally lost
- How to plan the PST calendar
- That it’s a little sick how much I love organization projects. I may need an intervention someday….
- That vibrating cell phones sound a lot like mooing cows

Month Six: 13 Dec. 2008- 12 Jan. 2009
- St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer: “Lord, let me be an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love.”
- I have gotten better at creating and maintaining healthy boundaries, but I enjoy breaking them with people I trust.
- No matter where you go, people are still people.
- I may be allergic to Ibuprofen.
- I am capable of handling more than I give myself credit for.
- Vomiting together bonds people.
- I really LOVE traveling
- South Africans are better off than a lot of people and they are 100% capable of accomplishing anything they would like to do.
- Being violently ill in a foreign country with people you don’t know very well sucks. But having wonderful friends (especially PC friends who have lost most boundaries of normal society) helps a ton.
- I’ve changed and grown since arriving in SA.
- That my raincoat is cooler than all other raincoats put together.

Month Seven: 13 Jan. – 12 Feb. 2009
- To ask questions rather than offer solutions.
- To keep my mouth shut even when I have more logical, easy solution.
- To not believe everything I think.
- To find my center of gravity again (physically, emotionally, spiritually)
- To bring an apron to work because I always end up getting really dusty.
- That it can rain so hard that being inside only lessens the degree to which you are getting wet.
- There is a rabbit in the full moon.
- That race relations are infinitely more complex than I ever expected.
- To be REALLY proud of my President and country.
- That I am glad to be avoiding the US economy at the moment.
- That being a PCV forever changes the way you see yourself and the world.
- More about the transmission/treatment/testing of HIV.
- To be an active listener.
- How to carry live chickens on a taxi.
- That indoor plumbing with no running water is worse than no indoor plumbing at all.