Mini-Vac meeting

Once every few months we get together with all the volunteers that live in our region for a mini-vac. I can’t remember what mini-vac means anymore, but pretty much what happens is one person is the representative for our region and they go to a meeting in the capital where they talk about what’s going on with Peace Corps, bring up any issues volunteers are having, etc. Then we get together as a group and talk about all that stuff, but also hang out and relax with other volunteers for an evening. It works pretty well here in region two because there are only nine of us. Although it’s hard to make a time that works for everyone. We decided to hold our last mini-vac meeting at my friend Jeff’s house. We call it Hotel de Jefe. We were going to have a chili cook-off but we got standfasted the day before we were supposed to have the meeting so we all made chili and ate it in our sites instead. Luckily the standfast ended the next night so on Sunday instead of Saturday those of us who were able headed out to Jeff’s place. We cooked up a mean dinner and then tried to burn a stump in Jeff’s backyard and sat around listening to music and chatting. It was a great night. Peace Corps is funny in a way. You get so used to just being in your community that you don’t realize that you’re stressed out or just tired of having to integrate all the time until you hang out with another group of volunteers. Number one it’s a nice reminder of the fact that you’re not alone in feeling stressed and tired, but it’s also a chance to vent, and laugh, and share stories, and listen to American music.