The Pursuit of Happiness
Tomorrow I’ll be leaving La Libertad and heading back down to Lima for the first time in 98 days. I know this because I’ve had a countdown going since I arrived in site on November 26 th . Those first few weeks in site were super rough! It had been hard enough saying goodbye to my family in September but the homesickness was eased by being surrounded by 56 other people along for the same wild and crazy ride. Saying goodbye to those 56 volunteers just 10 weeks later brought and getting shipped off to a new town 9 hours north brought on a whole new type of homesickness that took a little longer to cure. In the beginning, the countdown was what I needed to help me start the day. Each day I’d write out my to do’s and how many days were left until I would be reunited with the rest of WASH 20 for EIST, our first in-service training session. EIST was the reward for these first three months of integration, research and diagnostic writing and I needed to have something to look forward t...