The week tiled floors changed my life.
I spent my last week in my third to last major training during my service as a Peace Corps volunteer. We were back to nine-hour work days, this time followed by nights drinking Beninoise and swimming in the hotel pool.
All last week, my feet were clean, I was living in a climate-controlled environment and I had daily access to real milk for the first time in five months.
This week was the longest amount of time I had forgotten I live in Benin.
The classic line is that an experience like this is supposed to change what you value. Supposed to make you appreciate what you have so much more.
I used to think lines like those were bullshit. Until I freaked out at what was essentially the Fairfield Inn my family stays at when we visit family in the suburbs of St. Louis. (The first things that my roommate and I did after we checked into the hotel in Parakou were blast the air conditioning, plug in the mini-fridge and jump on the king-sized bed, in that order.)