One step at a time.

During PST (that’s Peace Corps lingo for “pre-service training”) they talk about this integration period after we first get to our communities that will be taking place during the initial three months we start living at our sites. This is the time when we are learning about our communities, our organizations, our host families, the language, etc. I thought that I, of course, would breeze through this integration thing. I have to say that this has just not happened. Okay, I will be fair. This has not happened…in my experience. Integration has taken much longer than three months (and still continues)...After the first three months at my site, I still felt like I didn’t know anything and didn’t fit in at all.
But, the good news is that after almost 8 months here in beautiful (and hot) Limpopo, I am just starting (notice that I say starting) to feel like I am getting to know my community. Okay, there are little chunks of time if maybe not entire days. For instance, I went to work yesterday and on my walk home, I was joined by a girl who knew me from the drop-in center. It felt comfortable. And the day before that, as I was coming home from my run, and the nurse from the clinic came out and we bantered for a while as she joked about coming on my runs with me (I don’t think she really wants to come with me of course). But, again, it felt good.

I say this because I am reminded of my perfectionist attitude about “getting it right” and that this should be easy. It’s not. This really slow integration process has been hard. But, slowly it’s feeling better. It’s still not easy but, finally, I feel like I am making progress.
Of course, I am leaving out the fact that there was a little girl that cried (okay, screamed) when she saw me today at church because she was still scared of me. Hey, one step at a time.