Festina Lente

Last week we had to write a ‘readiness to serve’ essay to give to the country director before being sworn in as volunteers. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about my upcoming work and whether or not I am indeed ready for it. There are countless reasons why I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to work for a few years before joining the Peace Corps, not least of which was the fact that I loved my old job. Another reason that sits further down on the list is the ability to compare my ‘job’ here in Peru to a working experience back in the states.

For those unfamiliar with my employment history, I worked with an energy trading firm called DC Energy starting in September, 2004. After a few months working in collateral management and risk analysis, I moved onto a team that traded long term contracts in the midwest electricity market and spent nearly two years working with those products. At work, I was on the computer most of the time, and was otherwise in meetings trying to convince management to let me spend their money. There was a lot of analysis and number crunching at first (which I liked – I’m a numbers gal), and then some months later I was able to concentrate more on strategy development. I had a great 2.5 years and really liked the work and loved the people there, but wasn’t sure I wanted to lock myself into a career just yet, and started looking into development work, something that would afford me the opportunity to apply my love of numbers to more complex real world situations (and maybe to do some good on the side). There are a few more dots to connect, but that is how I eventually ended up here in Peru. The job was the typical ‘office job’ in many senses; business casual dress, some late nights at the office, deadlines, excel and powerpoint, conference rooms, office gossip, awkward but hilarious holiday party interactions, etc. One time, out my window, I saw two teenagers doing the boogie woogie up against a car on the roof of the parking garage across the street from my office. I guess that is not so typical of an ‘office job’ but warranted mention nevertheless.

Life as a Peace Corps trainee couldn’t be further from an office job, though it does remind me a bit of high school. I have to go in every day at 8:00 am so at 7:30 on the dot I run out the door with my lunch in hand to catch the bus. Around noon we have our lunch break, and everyone whips out their bagged lunches. Sometimes if the trainee across the lunch table has something you want, and you have something s/he wants, you can arrange a trade. My banana for your two mandarins? Are you going to eat that cheese sandwich? We get an hour for lunch and usually before classes start up again people will run across the street to a little vendor which is our version of a snack machine I guess. We even have our own clinic which consists of a dark windowless room with a bed. One difference is there is no parking lot to hang out in after school and spy on the good looking seniors. There is a park outside the center, but it is usually filled with kids or drunks or old people. Or all three, and you can always count on the dogs (and dog poop).

I can’t tell if I feel more like a grown up or less like a grown up here in Peru. Training is sort of an alternate universe, but I’ve gotten a taste of what I’ll be doing for the next two years, and all my ideas about responsibility, expectations, goals, and success have already been a little revamped and I believe there will continue to be changes – big ones. For one, any sort of deadline will generally be set by me, though my ability to meet that deadline will often depend on factors well outside my control. Here in training we stick to a pretty tight schedule, but once I get to site, there will be more down time than I’ll ever know what to do with, and a big part of my ‘job’ is integrating into the community, so going to a new family’s house for lunch, or watching a soccer game with friends actually counts as ‘work’ in a sense. This will definitely take some getting used to, and will require a new way of thinking regarding efficient use of time. When I get to site, my job is going to involve a lot more interaction (with artisans, tourists, government officials, other community members) than my job did at DC Energy, and I feel like there will be a lot more unexplored territory I’ll have to break into which I’m a little nervous about. The geek in me is actually going to miss the number crunching I was able to do at my old job. On my site visit last week I spent a good half hour mulling over the visitor statistics from the museum and trying to think of ways to analyze those stats to make changes at the museum or at the store. I don’t think it is the typical ‘Peace Corps approach’ to quantify that which is generally unquantifiable, but I figure it can’t hurt to try things my way. Now if only I could find out a way to build a parking garage in my new site…