I haven’t written on here lately, which is mostly due to the fact that I don’t feel I have too much out of the ordinary to share. Time has been flying since my visit to Reitoca, and my days of training have fallen into a very regular groove. All of my attention is focused towards the future, as we only have two more weeks before we move out to our sites. These permanent 2-year sites will be announced this Monday, and all of us are waiting patiently (more or less) for those announcements. I have a lot to look forward to.
So what’s new? I’ve lost 20 pounds, but apparently weight loss is quite normal for guys in Peace Corps. I feel healthy, haven’t been sick since the first week, have plenty of energy, and haven’t ever felt like I don’t get enough to eat. I think part of it is the fact that I am in fact eating less, since I don’t feel the need to indulge in food. To be blunt, Honduran cuisine isn’t all that amazing (am I repeating myself?), thus I don’t ever feel the need to eat as much as I would in the States. I think the majority of the weight I have lost has been muscle (which, as you all know, I had so much of), and my rate of weight loss is definitely starting to decrease. Nothing to be concerned about.
Another reason that I haven’t done much writing on here is due to the fact that I have been reading voraciously as of late. Since arriving here, I have finished ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by Salinger (third time reading it), ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ by Jay McIneray, and ‘I Know This Much is True’ by Wally Lamb. The latter was 900 pages, though overall they were all quick reads.
Let’s talk literature.
Concerning On the Road, I have to say I was a little let down. It had been built up to be an American classic, but my personal opinion is that it didn’t live up to the hype. I struggled to get through it, as it felt like just a loose collection of descriptions of events that two selfish men experienced as they drove to various places around the country (as well as some of Mexico). I never reached a point where I cared about how drunk they got, how many prostitutes they slept with, or what kind of drugs they took. I never really connected with the main character, nor did I understand why he was so enamored with his friend Dean. The aspects of Dean’s character that made him ‘interesting’ only seemed to be a result of manic stages of bipolarity. Neither character has a genuine cathartic moment or seems to show some sort of fulfillment from their actions and adventures, but then again maybe that’s the point of the whole book (which I seem to have missed, if it exists). At the end I was left wondering if it’s popularity is only due to the shock value it held in 1950’s society (I believe it was first published in 1959), as well as the fact that scattered throughout are passages of beautiful prose and undeniably skillful writing here and there.
I don’t really have anything intellectual or groundbreaking to say about the rest of the books I read, so I won’t bother. All I can say is that I recommend the rest.
On Writing
I guess I’ll take this moment to say that I have been toying with the idea of writing for a little while now. Not having a writing background, I’ve been a little nervous to get started (this is where you can say ‘you can do it Peter! Your Blog writing is amazing already!). One of my fellow volunteers, Chris (who was an English major in college) suggested the idea of starting with a short story. His idea is that if you can write a good short story, then you probably have it in you to write a full novel. Instead of getting started with writing right away, I decided to procrastinate further. I downloaded a collection of Ernest Hemmingway short stories, both for my personal enjoyment as well as to give me some ideas on how short stories are structured (since I haven’t really read any since high school).
Hopefully I’ll get started within the next few months, as I have a lot of other stuff on my plate to worry about first. I’m always nervous about sharing ideas I have such as this (the idea of writing), as I worry that it won’t pan out or won’t be successful. I hate talking something up and then having it fall through, with my failure visible to everyone. One thing that encourages me is that this is exactly how I felt when I first started toying with the idea of applying for Peace Corps. I was careful about who I shared my ambition with, and was afraid to get too excited about it. I was worried I would either be too scared to go through with it, or that I wouldn’t be accepted. All the while I researched it quietly, and slowly took all the necessary steps to achieve that dream. After all that, look where I am now.
