Nun Sense

As I´ve said before, I work with nuns. It´s a pretty interesting experience. One which, I know later life I will make many a reference to the time I spent with the nuns. I can now say a nun has made me cry, which is a pretty big feet considering I am not catholic and never went to private school. She didn´t exactly make me cry, she was just pushing a subject I´d rather not have talked about and in doing so touched a nerve and I cried. I never ever thought I would be in a position in life where I would be working so closely with nuns. We are so different in so many ways, but we seem to get along. They have been very kind and understanding when I´ve had hard days, and I do my best not to do anything offensive. They are perfectionists and worry about things and put in painstaking hours on things I personally deem irrelevant. And I´m not even talking about religion. For example, they meticulously cover every one of the notebooks in plastic. This activity might take me an hour and the plastic won´t be cut completely strait cause to me it doesn´t matter, and the kids are going to destroy the notebook in 2 days time anyways. But the nuns will spend an entire day covering 10 notebooks in plastic. If one tiny detail is wrong they will start over.

Even though we are very different, I am starting to feel a bit like a nun myself. But again, not in the religious sense. One of the vows a nun takes, probably one of the better known ones, is a vow of celibacy. Since arriving in Peru, the idea of boys hasn´t merely been on the back burner, it´s been taken off the stove completely. And its not a conscious decision. I was feeling a little crazy, like there was something wrong with me. It seemed like all anybody wanted to talk about in training was boys and who was gonna hook up with a fellow PCV and who was gonna end up dating a Peruvian. How is it I haven´t even noticed the opposite sex for 5 whole months? But then talking to a friend the other night, she expressed the same experience. She even related it to being like a nun. I figure I have been so busy to think about it thats all. Busy in the sense that I keep myself busy, but more in the sense that all my thought and emotions have been so busy trying to take in this whole Peace Corps experience and trying to stay happy and sane.

I really cant see myself dating a Peruvian. For one, I dont want to. I have no interest in dating while Im here. I also dont find Peruvian men attractive. Besides the fact that they are all shorter and smaller in stature than me, nothing physically is attractive to me. And as far as personality, Im sure some of them have just fine personalities. But they´ve been breed in a machismo society and I dont think I would be able to tolerate all of his mannerisms and all the other BS that comes along with being a man in this culture. Im not trying to dis Peruvian men in General. Many PCVs have wonderful Peruvian boyfriends and I wont say its something I would never happen. I just dont think its for me. So the next two years will be very interesting indeed, however nun-like they turn out to be.