Five Years Out

“What’s it like coming back after Peace Corps?” Well, I’m finally back…really back. It took me a while to get back. Five years in fact! Five years since I left for my training, since I quit my career, sold most of my things, gave away my cats, got rid of my car…five years since I’ve had a real job, a ham sandwich, a hot bath, a short fat latte. I joke about being semi-retired or on a long sabbatical. But, when I finished PC I wasn’t ready yet to come back and settle into the next chapter. So, I immediately signed up to teach elementary school in Honduras. After a few months of visiting with friends and family I opted for another adventure and opportunity to live on a few dollars a day.

When I finished my tour as an environmental volunteer of three years in Ghana in West Africa I couldn’t wait to go off to another part of the world and do it all again. I’d always marveled at the educational volunteers and thought that I’d like to try and be a teacher. I’ve always wanted to live in a Spanish speaking country, to be a cowgirl, to be around kids, So, I got a job teaching third grade at a private school in the wild, wild west of Central America.

It was a fabulous experience, really amazing. I’ve never had a job that was so demanding, yet so fulfilling at the same time. A day didn’t pass without feeling as though I was doing something, to steal the words of Peace Corps, “to make a difference.” I fell in love with the profession and the kids, my two young vivacious roomies, the heat and the sudden downpours of the tropics, the fresh food at the market everyday, the communicating in a different language, the horseback riding in the mountains, walking to and from work…the “simpleness” of it all.
This spring after turning down a job in the Marshall Islands, my girlfriend and I returned to the lovely state of California where I bought a pickup truck that we loaded with all my things I’d left behind before heading off to Ghana and drove across the country stopping at all the national parks along the way. Neither one of us had done this since being in our 20’s. It was stupendous and along the way we brainstormed about the future.
After a month of zigzagging across the country we arrived in Carrboro, North Carolina, just outside of Chapel Hill. Alison, my girlfriend, has an old cabin and property that dates back to the early 1800’s. She’s got 20 acres, two dogs, a cat and a herd of deer that have just about made us both crazy reeking havoc on our garden all summer. But, it’s home and a lovely one at that.

Along the way, we had decided that we would sell all the things that we’ve collected along the way on our various travels together and apart. It started as a “let’s have a sale” and quickly developed into a “let’s do a seasonal gallery in one of the old barns on the property”. And so the Dirt Road Gallery was born.
We had our first opening recently and it went really well. Not surprisingly fellow travelers and a good amount of RPCVs showed up. Next, we’re going to create an online store so that we can conduct business year around. The gallery will be open in the fall and the spring so that during the other times of the year we can be traveling and collecting more things to fill the barn. We’re hoping to work with some of our friends and acquaintances that do crafts that we’ve met during our travels, providing them the opportunity to make a decent living.
I’ve also started to do art again and starting to sell it. I’ve already got a gallery that would like some of my work in Georgia. Soon, I hope to have a website for this as well.

Today, a woman is coming out so that we can discuss making some things out of the mudcloth and batik cloth that I brought back from Ghana. She only speaks Spanish. And while I was a bit rusty on the phone when she called the other night, I was able to talk with her and tell her what I was looking for. I couldn’t have talked to her two years ago. Now, I can conduct business with her. Life can be so damn interesting if we want it to be.