PC=Physical Challenges

In a world in which I am so accostomed to intangible, invisitble, hitting-your-head-in-the-dark challenges, this week has been characterised by much different obstacles: physical.

It started on Monday on my return from an awesome weekend with PCVs and the great American crowd-friendlier pastime: softball. I walked into the kitchen to find the sink in the middle of the room. My landlady has been living in the spare room (I rather unceremoniously ousted her from her room in favor of more light, space and a much comfier bed. In this land of long, cold and dark winters, can you blame me?) since July, doing some remodeling and construction. It's been an adjustment with the two laborers she hired (one is perpetually drunk), her two rowdy dogs and the dust and noise. But no water! I did dishes in a bucket of water I pulled up from the underground cistern that night, and I'll be honest, there was some grumbling.

The next challenge came on Tuesday. As my landlady has been working all day everyday, I have gotten out of the habit of taking my house keys. Sure enough, I came home a little after 3 pm to a vacant house. I climbed over my fortress-like stone wall (in a dress and high-heeled boots) and found thta the house was also locked. I had been to the bazar earlier in the day and had all my grocieries with me, which I also hauled over the wall. I sat until about 5:30 before I decided I was getting cold, tired and irritated. There is one window in my house that opens, which is located in my bedroom about 6 feet up. The window is about 18 inches high and swings up and down on hingest. I found a stool the workers had been using and climbed my way through the window. Half-way through, I got a painful cramp in my hip and ended up more or less diving the rest of my way through, knocking off two of the plants on my window sill. Dusty, scratched and cleaning up dirt, but I was in! Good thing, too; my landlady didn't come home until almost 7:30!

Tuesday was supposed to be my collect-kindling day, but after much time in the cold, I wussed out and put it off. Wednesday afternoon, therefore, I grabbed two large, empty cement bags adn took off for a run. I left the bags 10 mins out and kept going to the 30-min mark. When I got back to the bags, I began filling them. Eventually the sky was dark and cloudy, the wind had chilled the sweat in my clothes and I pretty much didn't care if I wouldn't be able to light a fire this winter. With a toddler-sized bag on each hip, scratched and again dirty, I walked home, enduring the stares and comments.

Other than a marathon of baking projects, I escaped Thursday relatively uneventfully.

And Friday. I was walking home after five straight lessons with some difficult groups and passed an old lady in a wheelchair almost at the bottom of the hill to my house. I normally see her begging near the bazar, and was ashemed that I'd never chosen to "see" her there. I walked about 30 steps past her, realized what a jerk I was being adn turned around to push her up the hill. I ended up going an additional 10 minutes past my house, all the while explaining to Maria why I didn't have any children. The convo went like this:
Maria: So you don't have any children.
Me: No
Maria: None? Do you have any in America?
Me: No, no children at all.
Maria: Why not?
Me: I am very young still!
Maria: Doesn't your husband want children? ("boyfriend" and "husband" are somewhat interchangable here)
Me: Well, yes, but we're both very young still.
Maria: You should have children soon. How old are you?
Me: 24.
Maria: Yes, it should be very soon.
Me: Ummm...
Maria: I think you'd have beautiful children.
Me: Thanks...I've gotta go now...[graceless exit]

Like I said, my challenges here aren't usually phsical. But there was something immensely gratifying about having this type of difficulty. I had a problem and some choices of how to deal with it. I saw my results right away, and was able to reap their benefits immediately. It was refreshing! Though I had my moments of grumbling and definitely did my share of sweating, I was successful. I only hope that next time, I remember what a blessing these kinds of challenges can be.

Best to you as you face your own challenges and succeed against them!