first posted 12/18/2007:
self. processing. catharsis. expression. reflection. inspiration. lessons learned.
others. b/c i think there should be more peace corps volunteers... and more Muslim peace corps volunteers. and b/c i think people with a multi-cultural background make good peace corps volunteers. i’ve been asked by many prospective peace corps applicants about my experience abroad. so this is the story of my experience.
the world. b/c i want to understand why i think and feel so differently (though not necessarily uniquely) about issues of Arab/Muslim identity in the US post-9/11. b/c i want to make sense of the world i am living in and the world within... Cameroon was, for me, a microcosm of Africa, of the Global South and of the world we live in.
presence. b/c i owe the people i met in Cameroon and what they taught me much... this is my way—one way—of repaying that debt. b/c i want to tell people about one of the most important lessons i learned. about what helps keep us in the places that we don’t necessarily want to be. what sustains us. nourishes and nurtures us. family. friends. faith. and patience. much patience. we need to learn to live in the now. i need to teach myself that lesson again and again. how to live in the now.
