In my Peace Corps memoir, I've reached the month of February right before In-Service Training. At this point, I already decided to leave the Congregational church to join the Baptist church. I did anticipate problems with this, since life on Kosrae revolved around the Congregational church. However, I thought it would be along the lines of not being able to see my friends as much as I wanted because they would be busy at choir practice, etc.
In reality, what I did was the equivalent of converting to Christianity in Iran.
After I became a Baptist, my host family either ignored me completely, or looked for reasons to yell at me. They were passive-aggressive to the point of not even buying toilet paper anymore, in spite of being paid by Peace Corps for that and other basic necessities (I decided to pay out-of-pocket). They accused me of being antisocial and then brushed me off whenever I tried to talk to them. One event I remember is when they screamed at me in front of Gibon, my neighbor and one of my favorite students, because I asked them not to put Chef Boyardee noodles on top of my rice. I did not see a problem with this, because my host mother had said when I moved in that all I had to do was ask and she would prepare my food "any way I liked." Of course, that was a complete lie, and gave them another excuse to yell at me. The truth finally came out when, after I was accused of avoiding them yet again, I pointed out that I couldn't do it if I tried since they were never around the house.
"Do you know why we are never around the house?" My host mother bellowed, "Because we are out doing church stuff!"
To me the entire situation was ridiculous. I did sign up to integrate into another culture, but I never agreed to give up my faith to appease my host family. In fact, I'd already decided that if I had to choose between God and Peace Corps, I was going to choose God. It was a no-brainer. God had sent His Son to die for me, and it would have been the ultimate slap-in-the-face if I caved to family pressure. Not to mention that, with their behavior, my host family wasn't making a good case for their faith.
Anyway, I was getting sick of these stupid arguments at this point and was looking forward to In-Service Training, where I would get to spend three days at Tree Lodge, my favorite hotel on the island, with hot showers and the famous "Bully Burger", a delicious tuna burger that was only $5.50 for a meal. I would also get to hang out with my best friend on the island, Richard, as well as the World Teach Volunteers and the previous class of Peace Corps Volunteers, who were awesome. Sadly, I've fallen out of touch with a lot of them due to everyone working in different parts of the world. But I did just hear back from Emily, one of my closest friends on Kosrae, and am ecstatic that she finally got a job doing medical research, something she had wanted to do for years.
In other news, I've been doing a lot of work with my church's Mobile Evangelism Unit and yesterday, my friend, Mr. Charles, and I led three teenagers to Christ. It was amazing because I had never helped anyone get saved before. I love volunteering with that unit and can't wait until the next time we go out. I also hope that my Peace Corps memoir will lead people to Christ, once they see how he helped me through that experience.
That's it for now. Until next time, stay posted.
