Loren's Peacin' Out

As of July 23, 2009, I officially PEACE OUT.

For the next 27 months, I will be living in Benin, West Africa, teaching ESL as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I started this blog as a way to chronicle my adventures — there is no doubt in my mind there will be some intense, harrowing, heartbreaking, side-splitting, eye-opening, soul-searching adventures. Friends and family, I'll make you a wager: if you keep reading, I'll keep writing. 

Great Expectations

I think the best possible way to attack the beast of completely uprooting my life as I've known it, packing all my belongings into a 60-pound glorified duffel bag, and moving across the Atlantic Ocean - sight unseen - to West Africa is to have as few expectations a possible. Granted, I'd safely venture to say that I know more than most 22 year-old Pennsylvanians about Benin, in so much that I can easily pick it out on a world map and probably prattle off some basic country profile statistics. But beyond that, I intend to initially treat this experience like a sponge; the goal is to remain constant and allow all the porous holes in my thinking soak up the environment, people, customs, and culture around me. However, considering I have only a few expectations, I figured I'd take this opportunity to write my first blog and share them with you.

1.  I can almost guarantee the second I step off the plane in Cotonou, I am going to take one 360 degree spin around and think to myself in a nerve-grating panic, What in the name of all that is holy have I just gotten myself into? Inevitably, my breathing will become labored, dizzying thoughts will cloud my mind, but I will press on. 

2.  I have a funny feeling that there are going to be some really basic things in my current, privileged American life that I've been taking for granted. The absence of such luxuries may become air apparent almost immediately and others will wheedle their way into my consciousness from a slow build. Either way - I'd like to take this opportunity to give some high praise and encomium to some of my favorite things:  Charmin toilet paper, mozzarella cheese, electricity, my brimming bookshelf, microwave technology, indoor plumbing,  bubble baths, wireless internet access, my washer and dryer, eye contacts, and the ability to have exhausting cell phone conversations at length whenever I want to for as long as I can remain awake. My things:  I love you; I'll miss you; I'll be back.

3.  This experience is going to change me. That's a given; I know. Like the wise, old sages of days-gone-by proclaimed, "Change is the only constant."  I have no idea what I am going to look, think, act, or feel like in two years. That's the best part in my opinion. I don't get to know what is going to happen to me. It's a giant surprise gift just waiting for me unwrap in a distant future I can't even fathom right now. The person I will become will be changed not only physically, but mentality, not only spiritually, but culturally. I'm really excited to meet that young woman. I bet she's going to have some amazing stories to tell (and with any luck, she'll be able to tell them in English or in French).

4. This will be difficult; this will be worth it.