Somewhere You Feel Free

You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
You belong with your love on your arm
You belong somewhere you feel free
-my favorite Tom Petty song

I was thinking about my journey home for Christmas and realized that this will be my first time traveling so far by myself. Immediately, I was overcome with the fear that something awful could happen but, the more I thought about things, the more I realized that I have been alone for over 4 months now. Most of the time, I don’t feel alone. On this crazy Peace Corps journey (that in reality has only just begun) I have made some new friends. I want to say that my experience with friend-making, though, has been a little bit different than everyone else’s. I didn’t get very close to anyone during training. Don’t get me wrong, I went through training with 37 of the most amazing people I have ever met. I just didn’t feel like I fit in very well. Making friends has never been my forte and, just like in college, it has taken me time to find my niche. I don’t want to get ahead of myself but I think I’ve found it. The volunteers that I’ve ended up with in Arequipa are amazing. Keeping friends, however, IS my forte and I think I want to keep these ones for a long time.

My sister and I went to an Armonia 10 concert the other night. They are a Peruvian cumbia band and they sing one of the few songs I can actually recognize on the radio (hasta seis en la manana). From the very beginning, the guys on stage had me targeted. After throwing posters into the crowd, they specifically had someone give me one and kept pointing me out as the girl in the hat. My sister, cousin (more like the age of an uncle), and I kept putting up 6 fingers so that they would play our song but apparently you need to write down song requests with your name for them to actually play them. My cousin handed in a paper with our names and the song on it and I immediately regretted letting him do that. From then on every song was dedicated to me… “Melody, baby, this is for you!” or “Melody, I am crazy for you, baby!” they would shout in English. Among the crowd were students I work with from the high school, teachers, and doctors from the health center. Besides standing out with my whiteness, I can’t think of any other reason for becoming such a sensation. Don’t get me wrong, though, I think the whole situation was pretty hilarious. It takes much more than that to get me embarrassed.

I get to dress up for Halloween this year!! I didn’t think I was going to get to and I think I gave everyone a heart attack with my crazy reaction when I found out. It turns out the regional meeting is the day after Halloween. So, we are going to go out in the city that night. I don’t know what I am going to be yet. I think my costume options are a little bit limited here without a Goodwill or Salvation Army. I wish I had brought my pink, puffy prom dress with me to Peru. I can use that for any occasion. It was such a good buy.

And about Christmas, it feels surreal. I don’t think its going to hit me that I’m going home until I step off of the plane in Philadelphia.