I am no longer a Peace Corps volunteer.

Due to a non-serious issue (stitches) I have become a permanent fixture of the medical unit here at our office in Cotonou for the past eight days and will be for the next five. 

I have been living in air conditioning. I have had access to high-speed internet. I have eaten Honey Nut Cheerios with cold milk for breakfast everyday. I have passed the afternoons watching The Hills on DVD. I have spent my evenings speaking English with people who work at the embassy. Today, I reclaimed the ability to sleep past noon.

We say that coming to Cotonou is almost like being back in America. As the largest city in the country, it is also the wealthiest and cleanest and the place where you are most likely to find Ben & Jerry’s. There are people who live in Cotonou and have never left. Never taken that trek up the highway where the country becomes poorer and poorer in front of your eyes. 

I’m not going to say that I’m not enjoying this mini-vacation. But this, along with my two weeks of vacation in the United States in one week, makes me afraid that I’ll forget how to do things like sleep in 90 degree heat, pull water from a well and feel bad about not leaving my house until 5 p.m. And that I will have forgotten the real reasons why I’m here.