Marvel

I´m staring at 3 very handsome men: The Incredible Hulk, Superman and Batman. I´m having a very Ecuador moment where I´m sitting on a super-crowded bus of sweaty, sticky (ice cream and otterpops), tired people with a content look on my face. I´m sharing my seat with my new puppy who´s in a box, who´s sitting on my backpack, which is on my lap with 2 ecua-kids perched at my knees and their backpacks are about as close to my eyes as I´d read a book. The boy´s Marvel comic strip themed backpack catches my eye...especially the word MARVEL.

I´m 8 months into my 27 month Peace Corps commitment and I am growing more and more smitten to my current home. I remember the first few months of bus rides which I then considered to by prolonged, uncomfortable, cumbersome...etc., where as I now embrace the collective chaos with a much more lenient attitude.

In my recent experiences, I´ve explored the spectrum of emotions (thank you mefloquine), and am convinced that my reaction to a situation catalyzes the following outcome.

Saying yes to Peace Corps was one thing, living out the commas and semi-colons is another...however, I always seem to be accompanied by marvel. I marvel at the breeze that comes right before you feel like passing out, the capacity of human adaptation, the common lack of common sense, the profound journey of the heart, the potent janky-ness of puppy poo, the orchestra of nature, the large patience this small country practices, the love in post-marked letters, the number of sweat glands the human body houses, the power of music, the deliciousness of a thick mango milkshake, and the potential for life we each have according to how we choose it- to name a few.

My life in its enigmatic manifestation trails along the questions, philosophies, hopes and dreams that I may or may not live out. But if " I dwell in possibilities"*, and believe that "where my treasure is, there the desires of my heart will also be"^, and am "unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiousity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways"¬; marvel and wonderment will remain abundant. *Emily Dickinson, ^Luke 12:34, ¬Edith Wharton