Oh Canada

Another side of the volunteer life is travel. This weekend I have the privilege of going to British Colombia for 10 days of Northwest summer, wedding festivities, and time with friends and family. Wow. Many emotions come up when a trip like this is on the horizon. It has been over one year since stepping out of Peru's borders, since hearing English all around (besides other volunteers), seeing clean streets, amazing grocery stores, and general order. This is not to berate Peru for its faults, but simply to state the glaring differences that make up this reality from our reality in North America. I have this twinge of feeling that I have forgotten some of this reality, and that sitting there in the airport (LA is my first stop) it will all come down on me like a pile of bricks. Yesterday I awoke in my room, in Amashca, a small mountain town in the Andes, and in a short 24 hours I will be in North America, with familiar faces, navigating a world I know, but seeing it again for the first time, with new eyes, eyes that have been surrounded by peaks, and polleras, dust and cuy, since last June. So wow, because although this transition may be more seamless than I anticipate, going "home" will never have the same flavor as before.