The purpose of the question was to determine which one of us would "help" change a light bulb for Patricia. She has had several near-misses while attempting to change light bulbs in the past few weeks, and has been ordered to cease bulb changing efforts, lest she bring death and destruction on the entire block.
The fact that I am of greater manliness than Andy is largely undisputed, but the bar is perhaps not as high as it could, or likely even ought to be. This is relates to the reason that Andy and I find ourselves out at Sally and Patricia's in the first place. You see, Andy and my building, officially named Riverdale House, but also known as 'The Tower of Darkness' was built during the 60s as public housing.
This year, it has been receiving several upgrades and repairs. It's been a fun ride. We've had hole's drilled in the poured concrete walls, a process which didn't take all that long in our flat, but lasted several awful, noise filled weeks as work was done through the rest of the building. The entire building acted as a sound board for the noise made from each hole, with the result that no matter which flat they were actually working in, it sounded like they were drilling through your skull. It was loud. It was annoying. But it was mostly during the day, and so mostly while we were at work, and thus was avoidable.
Now, however, they have received permission to upgrade the building's water pumps. Which means that there will be no water in the building tomorrow. Nor will there be electricity to the common areas. This means no functional elevator, which is annoying when you live on the 8th floor, but is worse when you consider that there will also be no lights in the hallways or stairwells. On top of no water.
So, we are spending the night at Sally and Patricia's. So we won't have to experience the mild inconvenience of not having water for one morning. So we won't have to deal with using the chemical toilets they set up outside, or go without a shower. This is the bar our manliness has failed to surpass. This makes me feel a little disappointed in myself, especially after reading blogs of some of the other YAVs serving in international sites, some of whom have no power or electricity regularly--for instance those in Kenya who face rationing of both due to the drought.
This post is titled half time because we have now entered the back half of my time here. In honor of that, we recently were asked to complete Mid-Year evaluations which asked us to reflect on how we are adjusting and growing during our time here. Overall, I feel I am doing pretty well, but I sometimes worry that I'm not growing enough, not being challenged as much as I would have been if I had gone, for instance, to Kenya. This isn't to say I regret coming here at all, I really do love working with Harmony Hill and at The Base, but the similarity of cultures is sufficient that this has been a generally easy transition to living here, and I wonder if I might have grown more if faced with more of a challenge.
Or, given the fact that I got a ride across town to sleep on a couch rather than miss a shower, perhaps this is the right place to be, and I would have folded under greater pressure.
Really though, I think I am underselling myself. The cultural differences between the U.S. and here might be subtle, but they are still pervasive, and at times more unsettling because they are so easy to overlook or forget about. The differences in our cultural taboos are very sneaky for their subtlety, and it can take a great deal more control than I'm always aware of to keep myself within the lines, especially when I don't always see them until I'm right on top of them.
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