525,600 Minutes! 525,000 Moments so Dear! 525,600 Minutes! How Do You Measure, Measure a Year?

In daylights? In sunsets? In midnights, in cups of coffee? In inches? In miles? In laughter, in strife?

In 525,600 minutes, how do you measure a year in the life? How about love!

Measure in love. Seasons of love.

525,600 minutes, 525,000 journeys to command! 525,600 minutes, how do you measure the life of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned, or the times that he cried, in the bridges he burned, or the way that she died?

It's time now to sing out, though the story never ends, let's celebrate, remember a year in the life of friends!

Remember the love! Oh you've got to remember, remember the love! You know that Love is gift from up above, Share love, Give love, Spread love, Measure your life in Love!

Seasons of love.

(insert appropriate credits here to Rent, the musical for the lyrics to Seasons of Love)

One year of service. One year of love.

Many jungle sunrises, sunsets, sleepless nights of uncertainty and cups of oversugared coffee so full of grounds it is chewable have passed since my arrival here to Playona. I have argued over and fought for inches (both literal and figurative), and walked miles upon miles. There has been an abundance of laughter and strife for both me and my community. Has it really only been 525,000 journeys? It feels like more. There were truths, tears, and although our bridges didn't catch fire, they did get washed away by the river. And we'll never really know why she died. But mostly, amidst all of that, was love.

Chola, Fernando, Pecho, Feli, Sami, Idasema, Misael, Ediberto, Grismaldo, Celidet, Leidi, Marilin, Angeli, Albedo, Rosalinda, Haucelio, Waldo, Kevin, Elpidio, Esteven, Aurelina, Eudocia, Florentino, Doralia, Yamilka, Yajeira, Avelino, Melani, David, Jorge, Felicita, Ricardo, Atilio, Caliana, Abidelcia, Merejildo, Iditcel, Lidia, Sopi, Alejandro, Yari, Ali, Abdiel, Abran, Yuritcel, Yoana, Yorleni, Diorleni, Raquel, Armodio, Lunia, Victor, Rosa, Miliana, Vicela, Caler, Rosaldinia, Alejandro, Flujencia, Djabito, Marili, Lusinia, Lisbet, Luzdari, Telba, Josecito, Toletino, Maria, Berta, Nayelis, Ferlai, Claudia, Olbidio, Abel, Albamilia, Aldon, Wilson, Etelbinia, Javier, Yasuri, Erminia, Bombele, Emili, Gelido, Harrison, Eneldo, Dionel, Katia, Adrian, Maria.

And that's just the ones off the top of my head. Don't forget all the PCVs too. And my friends and family back home. And all those that I have never met supporting me through this blog, through funding for my project, and through positive energy and prayer. All of these are people who have shown me an inexhaustable supply of love this last year.

As a teenager, I was a member of a service and leadership organization called Rainbow Girls. The most important ideals of the group are Love and Service. This last year, I saw firsthand that you can't have one without the other, and that each one needs, sustains, and inspires the other. The more love, the more service. The more service, the more love.

Jason, an acting grad student that taught many of my acting classes and served as a mentor to most of my class in college, was famous for his many slogans. Raise the stakes! The eyes are the window to the soul! But most importantly, no matter what show you are doing, what character you are portraying, if it is a comedy, tragedy, history, drama, or farce, or whether have the lead role or bit part, he told us to 'Find the love'. To portray a believable, honest character you have to find out what that character loves, even the villains, and play to it. Commit to it.

To be a Peace Corps Volunteer and see a project take root, to inspire change, and to help foster development, you have to find the love. Without understanding what your community loves and values, without making them people you love and value as well, and without them loving and valuing you, you won't survive, let alone have a successful project. You cannot serve without love.

As of today I have been a Volunteer for one year. I have learned so much about myself, the world, and life in general in that time. I have built six composting latrines, and presented at least a dozen seminars. But mostly, I said hi to my neighbors as I walked around town. I high-fived little kids. I shared my meals with many other families. I sat in other people's houses for hours upon hours swapping stories, listening to the rain, or just sitting.

Soon I will post the stories about the student group that came through, but whilst these 300 outsiders milled around my tiny town, one came up and asked me if I was Peace Corps. Surprised that he knew what Peace Corps was, he quickly told me he was from western Panama and had met another Volunteer there. He said, 'You must be Peace Corps because everyone gets really happy and smiles whenever they see you.'

Development is an infuriatingly slow process, and the case can be made that it doesn't even work. I lay in bed at night sometimes and wonder just how long it will take a community like mine to have things I grew up with and never gave a second thought: an endless supply of drinkable water, latrines, electricity, cement sidewalks, trash pickup, street lights, mail, a road, a bridge, computers...I could go on forever. The short answer is that some of these will come faster than others but some things won't even get here in my lifetime. It makes any effort, any project, any seminar we do as Volunteers seem worthless and meaningless.

In five years, my community won't remember my health seminar, my latrine project, or any other seminars I do here. They will remember my name, they will remember my first trip to the farm, the time my family came to visit, and they will remember sharing stories with me in the hammocks. The kids will remember playing cards and coloring on my porch, and getting high fives.

They will remember the love.

So how do I measure a year of my life in the jungle? The only way I can. In love.