pcpersonal

[pcpersonal]

[pcpersonal]

im x and i was a health education pcv in madagascar, around ten years ago. i asked to be put somewhere rural, because i wanted to learn a lot lol, plus that is also a tropical region, and that was the most different from what i was used to. id studied art history because i liked connecting to people through something like art. so, it was neat to keep connecting in pc. we actually got placed in our country by surprise, and mine was a pleasant surprise! mada has nice landscapes, and the people are fun, kind of serious at first?, easy going, and surprisingly straightforward .-i miss its foggy mountains, -beautiful but carsickness-inducing, neon flowers in the capital, neighbors dancing to upbeat music without shyness, and watching babies grow, whose mothers i advised with local health educators, and who i met when they were still in their moms bellies. it was so much to know, i dont think id ever tried so hard at something before then lol, n havent tried so hard at anything since !

so, the first time i met my host family, pc'd barely taught us any malagasy beforehand! one of the only things we learned were the words for "whats this". that was pretty much all i said , trying to learn new words . we got picked up, and mine found me, pale with nervousness, and language-less, but she took my bag on her own tiny shoulder, and held my hand reassuringly, the whole way home-even though my vocab was narrow, we connected in nonverbal ways. some things are just universally funny or relatable, no matter how well theyre verbally articulated. like, i brought a deck of cards to play, but it was hard to use them, without knowing how to explain games. instead, my brothers and i played songs on the radio and danced, using brooms as air guitars, so my host mom called us the "backstreet boys kely" aka little backstreet boys.

after living w them, at site before dinner, i kept my window open, and everyone else did too, and we'd each be singing our own pop songs to ourselves, kind of loudly, while cooking - i found people in my region to be, kind of surprisingly, expressive ! 🙂 then, like ten neighboring kids'd come to my door and come in to chat every night, for like my first two weeks there, cause i was a novelty ! they sat on every little surface in my tiny house. they tried on my chacos and headlamp, joking that theyre me, drew me pictures which covered my wall, taught me to make rice while clambering through all my silverware, after id tried myself, but overflowed it , to my disappointment, :p, and practiced singing songs and the accompanying dance with me, for when we go to the town's next party. they grilled me in gasy nightly, full of thoughts and questions lols, two of us sitting on my pc trunk, and thats how i ever learned how to speak smoother sentences lols. afterwards, i heard them playing in our sand street under the highest moon ive seen, which was bright enough that it shined through the slats in my walls lols 🙂 later, either the cries of like four of my future fav babies who were born together at my neighbors houses, would wake me up, or stray dogs fighting outside with vicious barking woke me, leaving me spooked like a nightmare !

in mornings, farmers called out, "watch out!, my herd is coming!”: -"a omby!!". so i woke n biked to my favorite local health educator, who let me call her "grandma", and held onto my waist, to help cover me with her little parasol, when we shuffled with our health info notebooks, knocking on doors, to tell everyone what to watch out for this season - mosquitos, poop in the kabone, etc.. id sometimes lose my sandals, stuck in wet roads, or one’d float away during a big storm lol , and id meet eyes with a girl who face planted while running, through the same rainy season mud, and we exchange surprised, somewhat amused expressions lols. later, everyone usually went home to lie shirtless in their dark house, trying to sleep through mid day heat, and eat liches, cause at least hot season is also liche season!

in the afternoon, id go to market. my entire way through the village, little groups of kids, who i didnt even know, would call out my nickname as i pass them: "mituvetuve !"- somehow, children as far as the next town knew my nickname! i think its good natured, and its a funny story: my first week, i was talking to my neighborhood kids, and mispronounced the word for "similar"- its supposed to be "me-tov'tov', but i misprounounced it, "me-too vee too vee", so they called me that, and called it out whenever they saw me, and i responded back w it, even from all the way down the road! xD

i approached the market, remembering i was told to get to know my community. so, we had one isolated paved road, that went westward across the country. most food stands, passing buses, and the market are there. and when you get there, it smells of cow poop, fried bananas, bus diesel and cooking-fire smoke, which sounds like a.. distinctt combo, but id recognize it fondly, if i smelled it lols. so i went all the way up this road, the section spanning my village, stopping at stands and making the lamest, but best conversation i had the vocabulary to muster : whats this food, where does this road lead? but we connected eventually! we got to jokes, like my friend, who ran the food stand at the bus stop and sold fresh juice, asked me, you like tamarind juice ? i didnt know how to say i dont love it cause its sour, so i just gestured, to say, “it makes me shiver”! she laughs, and shivers back jokingly, at me xD. it iss an acquired taste - which i did eventually acquire!

so, at the end, i was on my way home, eating a snickers bar in the back of a taxi when i got to the capital, which i always bought myself first thing, every time i finished a long trip between my site and the capital, as a reward for idk, - not barfing on the long twisting road ? i choke on gasy words all over again now, if my host mom calls, which is frustrating since id worked hard to speak well! but i went there to learn about others/myself, and now im again relearning my place in the world, through the lens of what i saw there, and still exploring curiosity and connection, in a similar, but also different way, from during pc.

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wanna know wat i left out. I was shy to go bc i didnt wanna feel sad abt it remembering it but when i got there it turne dout like half the ppl who talked went home early too! And had sad stories too abt their host mom dyin this year and she choked up sayin it or a girl getting malaria and one who married the guy who dig her an emergency poo hole when she had diahrrea lmaoo. And we all came up to each other empathetically warmly and sympathetically afterwards it was surprisingly healing and made u feel connected.

i shoulda thought of wat id like to hear if i was a prospective pcv but its hardd to conceive wat thats be wats approps and the right amount of expectations. Dif stories for dif audiences depending if theyve gone to pc or not lols. but i might want to tell prosp pcvs that some of the most imp things were u have to be v independent n have experience w idk self structuring ur day or some kinda community dev or program development and networking n especc delf defense/situational awareness!! would help . Well for my and ag sectors. The only thing thats keep i there is like ur dyinn to learn stuff and know ppl n language. A hard part is u are alwaysss like mostly disoriented bc nothings familiar and thats uncomfy sometimes to not feel at home.

but my experience was that ppl who do pc are some of our countrys like best? Ppl well at least patient curious and adventurous so we have a lot in common and u bond uick and deep bc u got thru it a lot together-i liked. U have to love challenging urself but its help to be honest and know when ur at ur limit and want to gracefully excuse urself to go home . Gives u so much important perspective to see another v diff country so intimately and thoroughly. Weather and potential or actual sickness is so much to get used to! Many health rules to get used to using so u dont get sick so request a site thats got good access to a town or the capital so u can get help. Does prepare u for harder situations in ur future tho since even tho its hard it didnt feel likee idk so paralyzing ? cause i knew i could just go home any time or my pcmo would helicopter to help me or send me home if its important emergency. But u need mental health of steel bc they dont have mental health reaources and if u tell tgem u need em theyll send u home so best case u can try just calling ur u.s. ther but the signal might be just ok n u probs dont wanna be isolated if ur not confident in ur health/mental health. Butt profound if u lovee learning and making friends and patient w inconveniences.

[pcpersonal]

i love when words fit right. seize was always supposed to be that word, and so was jester. tuesday isn't quite right but thursday should be thursday, that's a good word for it. daisy has the perfect shape to it, almost like you're laughing when you say it; and tulip is correct most of the time. while keynote is fun to say, it's super wrong - i think they have to change the label for that one. but fox is spot-on.

most words are just, like, good enough, even if what they are describing is lovely. the night sky is a fine term for it but it isn't perfect the way november is the correct term for that month.

it's not just in english because in spanish the phrase eso si que es is correct, it should be that. sometimes other languages are also better than the english words, like how blue is sloped too far downwards but azul is perfect and hangs in the air like glitter. while butterfly is sweet, i think probably papillion is more correct, although for some butterflies féileacán is much better. year is fine but bliain is better. sometimes multiple languages got it right though, like how jueves and Πέμπτη are also the right names for thursday. maybe we as a species are just really good at naming thursdays.

and if we were really bored and had a moment and a picnic to split we could all sit down for a moment and sort out all the words that exist and find all the perfect words in every language. i would show you that while i like the word tree (it makes you smile to say it), i think arbor is correct. you could teach me from your language what words fit the right way, and that would be very exciting (exciting is not correct, it's just fine).

i think probably this is what was happening at the tower of babel, before the languages all got shifted across the world and smudged by the hand of god. by the way, hand isn't quite right, but i do like that the word god is only 3 letters, and that it is shaped like it is reflecting into itself, and that it kind of makes your mouth move into an echoing chapel when you cluck it. but the word god could also fit really well with a coathanger, and i can't explain that. i think donut has (weirdly) the same shape as a toothbrush, but we really got bagel right and i am really grateful for that.

grateful is close, but not like thunder. hopefully one day i am going to figure out how to shape the way i love my friends into a little ceramic (ceramic is very good, almost perfect) pot and when they hold it they can feel the weight of my care for them. they can put a plant in there. maybe a daisy.

[pcpersonal]

The most beautiful footage of strangers dancing in public… https://twitter.com/Thorayaaa/status/1660180658646568967

[pcpersonal]

The black areas represent the remaining natural dark skies in the United States

[pcpersonal]

Outcool

[pcpersonal]

idk I just love how we Young People Today use ~improper~ punctuation/grammar in actually really defined ways to express tone without having to explicitly state tone like that’s just really fucking cool, like

no    =    “No,” she said. 

no.    =    "No,” she said sharply.

No    =    “No,” she stated firmly.

No.    =    “No,” she snapped.

NO    =    “No!” she shouted.

noooooo    =    “No,” she moaned.

no~    =    “No,” she said with a drawn-out sing-song.

~no~    =    “No,” she drawled sarcastically.

NOOOOO    =    “No!” she screamed dramatically.

no?!    =    “No,” she said incredulously.

[pcpersonal]

Moonlight by Valfrid Nelson (1849–1930)

[pcpersonal]

South Carolina followers: free green beans on I-95!

[pcpersonal]

Last light | ( by Niklas )

[pcpersonal]

a lot of pieces of media will show characters catching fireflies with just their bare hands. in some cases they will just land on the persons fingers. to gently be placed inside of a jar..

for people who live in areas who don’t have fireflies, i want you to know that is not made up or exaggerated for those scenes. fireflies are really like that. they are slow and not cautious at all. while camping i would just walk up to one flying in the air and grab it. and it would sit on my hands like “oh ok.” they are my friends.

[pcpersonal]

🔥 on american culture

There isn’t any.

America stripped the cultures away from all who came here in order to hammer them into the good little uniform consumers that were wanted.

The culture of America is one of endless consumption and breathtaking arrogance.

[pcpersonal]

pc learned so much + felt and gave so much love

[pcpersonal]

[pcpersonal]

I love thinking about peoples dif relationships to language. Obviously if somethings not ur first language itll feel more utilitarian and probs harder to feel connected to . Any language can feel only utilitarian if u, personally, use it more for funtional instead of personal uses, so feelingg personally like english is just for getting stuff done isnt really a diss , everyones just different in their experience w languages

ar as i know i dont feel like something is Lacking in my ability to communicate the rightt amount of emotions that i feel, i think english is finee i have no likee complaintss lols. I never find myself feeling likee boy if OnlY my language could express this and that thing more 🤷🏻 Idkk, what elsee do ppl talk about ?

it has a lot of particular nuances probs like other languages like sarcasm and irony

its interesting how its hard to translate exact ways a message feels though like it has one feeling in one language and u sometimes have to thinkk of particular other words - but the direct translation wont do lols-in another language to get the same effect acrosss

The idea of english as a mother tongue is so strange to me, in my head english is how ppl communicate when there's no way in common to communicate, so english as a mother tongue sounds a bit like idk email as a mother tongue ykwim? Like english to me feels like the stuff that's used to fill the empty spaces between languages

[pcpersonal]

Lolss on hot days me and my neighbors would lie on the floor of my pavillion and its railings lollss and listen to my radio xDD

(Pinterestから)

[pcpersonal]

rb this and put in the tags which fruit u think is the most romantic