Integration

I've been worrying about integration a lot lately. I'm generally happy in my town, but nearly everyone says that I don't passear (walk around making social calls) as much as the last volunteer, and that I am very quiet and sure do stay in my house a lot.

It's not that I'm anti-social -- I converse with my roommate when she's around, I talk with my next-door neighbors often, and I make an effort to sit outside every evening as the sun sets so people know where to find me if they want to chat.

What I don't do is wander around, talking to whoever I happen to pass on the street. Unless I need to buy something at the market, which is not that often, I don't have much reason to leave my neighborhood. There's nowhere to go, anyway, since you can walk from my house to either edge of town in under two minutes. So I find myself at home a lot, and that doesn't really bother me.

I'm fairly content with my social situation -- sure, I've got a long way to go, but I've only been here for two and a half months. I wasn't expecting to have any life-changing best friends at this point. Plus, I've never been the type of person to mind being alone for long periods of time. An evening with just me, Poppy and a book is an evening that I will enjoy.

However, Peace Corps makes a big deal out of stressing the importance of integration into your community, and there's a constant pressure to be always reaching out to new people, forming new relationships, etc. While I definitely see the advantages of a Super Social Volunteer, isn't it just as productive to have a volunteer who focuses their energy on a smaller group of people but really deepens those connections? I'd rather talk with Páscoa or Norai for three hours about politics, the world, philosophy, etc, than walk around my town making small talk with everybody and their mother.

Yesterday I found myself in need of a new lightbulb, so I walked into town to buy one. I smiled and waved at people and answered all the calls of "Good morning, Teacher" despite the fact that it was in fact evening already. People seemed happy to see me, but they also seemed surprised that I had ventured outside of my housing complex.

And thus I had the sad realization that I barely know any of these people. My entire social circle consists of the people who live in the professors' complex, and of them, I know only a handful well. While that's enough for me personally, it's not enough professionally. If I want to be able to enact any sort of change in this community, I'm going to have to make more of an effort to be a part of the community, and not just an observer.

I'm not really sure how to go about doing that. I am hoping that in a few weeks, when I start having extracurricular club meetings, it'll help me connect with students who really care.

In the mean time, looks like I'm going to have to learn how to passear.