Got stress?

There’s a lizard that lives in my bathroom.  I’ve never seen it but it poops everywhere: on top of the toilet, on the toilet lid, on the sink, on the floor, in the shower - you name it.  I had a dream that I moved my trashcan and discovered the lizard in the form of a 50-pound turtle/stegosaurus creature.  Luckily, that was just a dream and the real, tiny little lizard continues to thrive.

I will admit that my house lizard adds a small amount of stress to my daily life.  While I appreciate that it may be eating mosquitos, I also fear that I will accidentally sit on it when I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.  All the lizards I've seen here look pretty friendly, but I'm guessing they would be pissed if I sat one.   

This was a nice, zero stress day on the coast earlier this year.  Due to recent landslides, I sadly will not be able to visit the coast anytime soon.

Viewing sunsets, from the beach, is a key method of stress reduction.

If you asked me, I would say that I have a lot less stress in my life now compared to my life in the US.  However, that's not really true.  I just have a different type of stress.  There's nothing like Peace Corps service to really help you identify your stressors, and create some entirely new ones.  So what new stressors have I identified? Let me tell you!

Street Dogs: I have been forced fortunate to spend A LOT of time with dogs here in Mexico.  I'm not what you would call a "dog person" but I've learned that if you ignore them, they generally ignore you.  And if they don't ignore me, then I just start talking to them in my voice normally reserved for babies and pretend to be a lot more comfortable and braver than I really feel in the moment.  I recently ran into a pack of dogs on the sidewalk who were unhappy to see another dog on the street and things got intense.  No sweet talking was going to help there, so I just hugged the wall and retreated to the previous corner.   

A collage of our office dogs during the past year. 

You also have to watch out for those street chickens!

Scorpions, Spiders and Lizards - oh my!  While showering the other morning, I saw something large and dark climbing on the wall next to me.  I jumped out to grab my glasses and found a spider the size of my palm showering with me, and neither of us were happy to see each other.  Now that I have found one scorpion inside my house and one outside my front door, I am constantly scanning walls, ceilings and floors for anything that doesn’t belong there.  I tell myself that I will never ever find a scorpion in my bed, but anytime I feel (or think I feel) something touch me, I jump – violently – with arms flailing.  

Trying to Have a Sense of Humor in a Second Language: It can be stressful not to be able to put your (awesome) sense of humor on display.  In my experience, sarcasm does not resonate in my community, so it's been a struggle to make jokes.  Cheesy kids jokes also don't seem to work: one day someone asked me "what's up?" so I said "the sky!" Ten minutes later I was still trying to explain why that was a joke.     

This is a natural spring for mineral water. I drank out of this hole and survived to tell the tale. No stress there. 

Explanation of mineral water site.  

Constant Changes: In my 15+ months at site, we’ve had more than 10  employees/consultants come and go from my office and there are always more on the way.  It’s been nice to meet so many different people but I’m also constantly re-introducing myself, establishing new relationships and saying goodbye to people.  

Getting Asked Innocuous Questions - every day: I know it sounds crazy to say that it’s stressful to have people ask you “where are you going? what are you doing? why are you so quiet?” every day, but it is.  I have a feeling my fellow volunteers can relate.

Flooding: I think it goes without saying that it’s stressful to be in your house dealing with flooding.  It's also stressful to be away from your house when it starts raining hard and you're worried about flooding.  And finally, it's stressful when heavy rains cause landslides that take out chunks of the road that connects you to the coast, leaving you without passage for months.

Noise: If I had to confine Mexico to one word (which admittedly would not be fair), that word would be noisy.  As a delicate flower with a low threshold for loud noises, I have a long list of noisy stressors: super loud car engines, 5 AM church bells and fireworks, trucks driving by with loud speakers advertising their watermelons/tomatoes/mangos for sale, people holding conference calls by using the speaker feature and talking loudly on two cell phones at the same time.... Even thought I love the song "Personal Jesus," I don't love hearing it blasting from passing cars, which, strangely enough, has happened multiple times.  

News from the US:  Enough said.

More time spent with trees = less stress. 

There's nothing stressful about this lovely table setting. 

There are lots of peaceful places in the countryside.  But.... there might be some stress regarding how you're going to find a bathroom or water to drink out there.  

It's an awesome experience being a Peace Corps volunteer but it is not stress free.  That should not surprise you but I will ask you to keep that in mind when we're emailing or talking on the phone.  Yes, I'm happy and things are good, but every once in awhile, a stressor hits and you may find yourself wondering why on earth I'm stressing about something that seems so benign. 

My brothers and sisters have been so awesomely patient with me even when I know I'm complaining to them about something that doesn't really make sense ("the sun was out AGAIN today and then this person smiled at me, asked me where I was going and offered me free food.... it was a hard day").   I'm operating in a different world these days and am often a little sleep-deprived after a night battling imaginary scorpions in my bed, so thank you for your patience.