Constant Stream of Adrenalin

Watching all the resource volunteers during pre-service training and seeing how much energy they all have is a bit unnerving. I started to wonder if they just put on a show for the trainees and aren’t regularly like that or if being a Peace Corps volunteer offers a constant stream of adrenalin.

My initial adrenalin rush ended a few days ago. I’ve been in country for a month. I’m getting use to the food, the language lessons, and the pre-service training pace. That steady break-neck pace quickly emptied the gung ho adrenalin I’ve been making withdrawals from since leaving the US. So I don’t know how these full-fledged volunteers do it.

Where does this energy come from? Is there some untapped resource I’ve yet to find as a trainee?

They constantly say our Peace Corps lives don’t really start until we arrive at our permanent sites. That’s when we’ll face the real challenges of having no other English speaker in sight and having no real structure. We’ll be bored out of our minds if we don’t create structure for ourselves. So is that process of creating structure when volunteers find that energy? It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Will my need to have meaning give meaning?

Heavy.

Perhaps I shouldn’t worry about this yet. I have nearly two full months to ponder the source of this energy. Maybe it would be a better use of my time to concern myself with the giant pile of pisang and rambutan in front of me. Enak!