David Letterman

In high school, my best friend and I used to write our top ten moments for the year down in our yearbooks. It kind of helps remind you why you are the way you are now. Today marks the one year point of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. Here are this year’s top ten:

Top 10 Moments of Peace Corps: Year 1

10. Singing Hanson songs with Willard and MariBeth. No judgment, all Mmmbop.

9. Seeing my first movie in Ormoc. It’s like a 2 hour bus ride to Ormoc, which is the closest large city. After probably a month at site, I told my host family I was going to visit it on my own. The ride there gave me this awesome feeling of independence. A day trip by myself into uncharted territory was nothing short of amazing. I explored the city, found a 50 peso theater, and watched Twilight in the air-conditioning. Aahhhhh.

8. Dinosaurs at Jesus’ birth. Last Christmas, I looked down at my host mother’s manger scene she had displayed and saw where the house helper’s son but a stegosaurus next to the sheep and cows. It made me laugh.

7. Riding a bus with Jasmine and watching a guy offer our bus driver beer. Don’t worry mom, he declined.

6. Cooking lessons at Dovie’s. Bananque, fish, buko salad. I’m one step closer to diabetes, but at least it was delicious getting there.

5. Digyo. Inopacan is known for having 3 islands off its coast, and the very last one is named Digyo. It’s beautiful, with white sand beaches and a marine sanctuary for snorkeling. Definitely a cool place to go camping…you know you want to come and visit it!

4. Valentine’s Day. I really love my students.

3. Watching any type of beauty pageant or dance routine. Have you ever seen the movie Little Miss Sunshine? You know the part where she does her dance routine for the talent competition; it’s kind of like that.

2. Friends. Some are still here, some have gone back, and some I’ll be seeing super super soon!

1. Library. I love the fact that the books inside of it came from people that I love back home for new people that I’ve come to love here. It truly has made a difference for a lot of kids, and helped me get through my first year here.