insignificant walks

Less than 3 weeks left in the village. It’s crazy to think that in 3 weeks, all of my stuff will be packed up, my pictures and cards taken off the walls and I’ll really be walking away from this place. Two years here – it certainly doesn’t seem like it and in so many ways I don’t want to say goodbye to my friends. I know I’ll be back but it will be different. The quiet calm of the village will be far away once I’m living in the city again. I’m trying to enjoy each little thing, grasp it fully before it slips away.

So today I hung out with Tanya for a bit. It wasn’t necessarily work related at all but it was necessary. Our time is almost through, our friendship destined to change. We went and hung out with Megan for a bit and then we walked to the post office. A seemingly insignificant event but one of the things I’ll remember a long time from now when everything is a bit fuzzy and many things forgotten. The walks to the post office, always eventful with someone (usually a child) calling us lehua (white person) no matter how many times we tell them our names. Sometimes we would vent during the 40 minutes about work stresses or gush about our great boyfriends or just talk about life, what we want to do, where we want to go, who we want to be. We would share letters and packages on the way back, and talk about how friends and families back home, wishing more people would write, hoping tomorrow would be a better mail day. We greet people constantly, try to ignore the drunk men, try to stand the many children that when they get it right, just scream out our names, no matter if we acknowledge them or not. The walks to the post office are filled with these insignificant moments that completely embody what my experience has been like.

The main road to the post office is being tarred. For good reason the construction crews have put rows of rocks to stop cars and taxis from driving on the road because it’s not quite finished. But the people just move the rocks out of the way and drive down the road, too fast and scare the pedestrians. Today I decided that it was our job to put the rocks back. As we walked down the road, we dragged, carried, pushed and heaved the bigger rocks back to their rows to try and prevent those rule breakers from driving down the road. We got a lot of strange looks, some people laughed but we didn’t care and it was fun. And then we watched as one taxi went around our road block. Then another car stopped, got our his car, moved the rocks, got back in the car and drove the 20 feet to the next row, and repeated his process. I would think that the other road would be faster and more efficient for them but they evidently have their reasons.

A seemingly insignificant day, with seemingly insignificant events yet fulfilling in so many ways.