The little things.

During pre-service training, PCVs hear time and time again about the emotional roller-coaster of an experience that they are about to embark on (or rather, have already begun).  If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen the following graph since joining the Peace Corps, well, I could probably retire early (but only by about an hour or two).

This graph doesn't even begin to cover the amount of ups and downs that actually occur.  During the first few months at post, I tried to make a "happiometer", graphing my mood in Excel using a happiness ranking system of 0 to 10.  I quickly gave up after realizing that I am just far too mercurial here: within the span of an hour, I could go from a 6 to a 2 to a 10 and back down to an 8.  Choosing an average didn't seem to do the day justice; it didn't seem right to rank a day at a 6.5 when really it was all over the place.

What the happiometer taught me, however, was that no matter what happened throughout the span of the day, I could reflect back and realize that there were far more positives than negative, that the negatives really were either easily fixable or completely a fault of my own, and that many of the happiest moments came from incredibly simple things. 

The periods of unhappiness or distress, at least during my service, are mostly caused by 1) a feeling of idleness when I wish to be working constantly and seeing tangible results (Solutions:  Find more things to do! Be proactive! Start a garden!) and 2) the constant attention given to me merely because of my skin color: calls of “Nassara, Nassara”, “la Blanche!” or even hissing or kissing noises (Solution: Introduce myself.  "Inde am na Nassara.  Inde am Maria.")

The happiest moments tend to come from the simplest human interactions:  a brief exchange in Fulfulde with my onion man, a group of children shouting "Maria! Maria!" from a distance, or sitting and laughing with Tabitha and her kids.

Today, however, I realized that there are three awesome things in particular that have been complete game-changers in my level of happiness recently.  They are as follows:

1.  Unlimited texting.  

"Unlimited texting?" you might ask... "What’s so special about that?  We’ve had that in America for years!"  Well let me tell you!   

Up until a few months ago, MTN (my cellphone service provider) offered one text at 10 cents (50CFA, but we’ll talk American here.)  However, they offered a special deal where for just 20 cents, you could send 20 messages in the span of 24 hours.  That’s 20 for the price of 2 – not so shabby!  Assuming I remembered to renew this ‘bundle’ each day, I was paying approximately $6 per month on texting, while feeling a bit constrained, constantly choosing my words wisely to limit my characters so as not to go over the 20 text limit.  

Then MTN upped their game a bit.  For only $1 per month, unlimited texting.  BAM!  

Thanks to this bargain, I now feel far closer to my fellow PCVs who are spread all across the country.  Now I can text like it’s nobody’s business, whether it's to rant about frustrations, exchange amusing anecdotes, or just to say "hey!".  It’s absolutely fantastic.  Even my counterpart has jumped on the bandwagon and started texting me instead of calling.

This definitely causes constant upward slopes on the happiness chart.

(I guess this also serves to demonstrate how frugal I’ve become… That $5 per month that I’m saving is a BIG deal.  Seriously.)

2.  Giant campfire marshmallows. 

Okay.  So in each transit house, we have what’s called an “up-for-grabs” box.  This box is where PCVs can dump any unwanted clothes or other items, under the assumption that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.  And boy, oh boy, what treasure did I find the other day in the Garoua Up-For-Grabs?  A giant unopened bag of giant campfire marshmallows!  We're talking GIANT.  Like, 90-calories worth of pure sugar per each delightfully puffy pillow of sweet, sweet happiness.    

Could this be too good to be true?  Did somebody leave these here by mistake?  The packaging may have a bit of a yellow tint to it, but they don’t expire July 31^st, 2014!  (And going by my Mom's guidelines, that probably means they've still got a good 3 years before going bad!)

I asked around to see if they perhaps belonged to somebody else (hesitantly, for fear that somebody might actually claim them).  The only response I seemed to be getting was, “Maria, I really really don’t think you should eat those.”

Pshh.

The past two nights have been full of pure sugary joy.  When the electricity has been out for weeks, what could possibly be more delightful than roasting giant marshmallows by candlelight?  Nothing, that’s what.   

Finding these marshmallows – huge peak on the happiness chart.  I'll be very sad if I find out that it's not a bottomless bag. 

3.  Tea parties with good friends. 

This is not really something new, but something rediscovered.  I forgot how comforting tea can be.

Today was a long day.  I started out with a run at 7AM.  As soon as I returned, before even showering, I set off to work on my computer, helping another volunteer edit his grant proposal.  We finished at around noon, at which point I showered, ate some ramen, and then started washing my laundry.  I don’t know how many of you have ever tried this, but let me tell you – washing sheets by hand is no easy task.  However, it had to be done, because I recently discovered that when it rains, there is a leak in the roof directly over where I sleep at night, filling the bed with musty, rusty water and a very foul odor that I am so happy to have discovered is not actually coming from my own body (it was a rude awakening when it started pouring at 4AM the other day).

After finishing my laundry, I sat down for just a few minutes before Olivier came over.  He was going to help me clean out the termite mound that had formed in the bathroom, the six different wasps nests that had been constructed in various places in my house over the past two months, and the gazillions of spiderwebs.  After ridding my house of most of the creepy-crawlies, we decided to wash the floor.  This meant moving all the furniture around, and eventually led to the discovery of the worst creepy-crawly of all: a scorpion.

Once the house was clean (by about 5PM), we set off to his house.  Tired, dirty, and itching from heat rash and mosquito bites, I was feeling pretty beat.  Tabitha (Oli’s mom) was not home when I arrived, so I sat on the bench with Oli’s sister, Christine.

When Tabitha arrived, it was finally my turn to welcome her:  “Soyez la bienvenue!! …er….chez vous!!!”  (Welcome!!  To your own home!!)  We chatted and giggled and sat for a while, sipping sweet, hot chai.  It was beyond relaxing.

Good company and tea are definitely always upward slopes, if not peaks, on the happiness chart.

These are all simple things, and probably are not things that one might go crazy for back at home (though I always did love marshmallows), but maybe that just goes to show you how the little things in life are all that really matter sometimes.  The little things in life can lead to the happiest moments.