Missing/Making Friends/Family
I know I haven’t posted in a long time and that is due to many excuses that I could list, but then it would just make this post longer and you all should know by now that I like to talk – or type – a lot. So, let’s just get into it.
Being a Peace Corps volunteer is a strange thing at times. One second you feel like you don’t belong, like a large gray elephant in a Where’s Waldo, and then you find yourself at another moment forgetting that you are not in America. You just fit in so perfectly that you feel like Waldo; happy, smiling, and wearing a red and white shirt, hat, and glasses. Okay, that’s enough Waldo for now. (I’ve hidden another Where’s Waldo reference in here. Try to find it!)
I have been lucky enough to make some truly great friends on my campus. Many volunteers might keep their distance from the teachers or their campus and focus only on other aspects, such as students or local community, but not this one. I have become quite close to some of the teachers here.
Last semester, I had started up both a student reading group and a teachers’ book club (they demanded it), it has continued to this semester and I think it will keep chugging along for some while. The attendance for it isn’t too grand, but the conversations are, so I really don’t mind. The teachers who attend have been phenomenal with keeping up on their readings and discussing their theories. This semester we have read Water for Elephants, The Glass Menagerie, “Monkey’s Paw,” Of Mice and Men, And then There were None, and there could have been more, I kind of forget at the moment. But one day it dawned on me. These teachers put aside their time to take part in my activity. They really don’t have to attend, they just want to and they have been excelling at it. So, that led me to a question.
Why don’t I do the same for their activities? Activities hosted by teachers aren’t too common, but there are a few. Lately, I have been attending yoga classes – held by one of the teachers who is very active in the book club discussions – and I’ve actually been enjoying it much more than I had expected. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excelling at yoga, I’m not even a little good. On the rare occasion that I can do the pose correctly, I am instantly brought down five million pegs by looking at the instructor and seeing how her body is a perfect wheel and I’m still unable to touch my toes.
Anyways, my untoned body isn’t way I wanted to talk about today, I want to talk about friendships. So, with that little yoga class, I have been able to connect with the teachers more. We started having inside jokes and all formalities have been left behind. It was great to do yoga with them, but then the weather changed. Now it is far too cold to comfortably wear work out clothes in the drafty office. So, we needed something new to try, but what could a group of people with ages between 25-50 do together?
Knitting! The answer to all of life’s questions. One teacher asked if I would be able to teach her how to knit because she had always wanted to learn. Now we meet up and knit on Tuesdays. Well, they knit. I just pick up my needles and set them right back down to help them out and then pick them up again and so on. They have been very excited since the beginning and have learned that there is more to it than just pooping out a scarf. But it has been simply amazing.
Last week, the four of us were sitting in the café knitting along when one of the teachers brought out popcorn. After a few jokes, we somehow began throwing popcorn into the air for others to catch in their mouths. We had popcorn everywhere (except for our mouths) and students/cafegoers were watching us as we were loudly laughing and trying to regain our composure.
This is something that I love. Just people being friends. We are not required by the school or Peace Corps to learn how to knit. (I am required to do a secondary activity, which are my two book clubs; but this is all me.) We are just hanging out and having fun.
My waiban – my boss at the school – found out that I was hosting these knitting classes and quickly become curious, but not in a good way. I must tell her if I am starting up any new projects on the campus or with the people of the school. But I don’t see this a program. I don’t see those teachers as teachers. I just see them as my knit group.
People who have done Peace Corps can tell you that it is rough being away from your friends and family for two years. Some volunteers have a difficult time dealing with their feelings of isolation from the world they know back in the states. I have been lucky with that feeling. I didn’t feel homesick until about two months ago. I’m already so close to finishing my service. I’m beginning to miss all of my friends and family, even my old high school friends who I haven’t talked to in six years.
Now, please don’t get me wrong, I have other friends. I didn’t just get my first China-friends yesterday. If you’re reading this then you should know that I’m likable and can make friends…okay, I’m at least tolerable…sometimes. But this group is special to me because knit groups aren’t formal for me. A knit group isn’t even just a group of friends for me. I see it as a family. This idea was first gifted to me by the people who taught me to knit, my original knit group. I miss them almost as much as I miss Beans (my very old, mean Boston terrier) and Empress Wu Zetian (the house cat, not the only female emperor of China) and that’s saying something.
I’m missing my friends left and right. All the weddings I will never be able to see outside of photographs, the children being born that I won’t meet until they’re potty-trained (okay, I might have dodged a bullet there), and everything else happening. I won’t be able to spend my time with all of you. But I’m at least able to feel like I have some of you here with me with my new knit group.
Oh! Did you find Waldo?












