You know you´re in the Peace Corps when...

And now for my ongoing list, which will be updated periodically, so check back!

You know you´re in the Peace Corps when...

- You voice surprise that there is electricity when it's raining
- You scrub a moldy-smelling grocery bag with soap and water in order to reuse it
- The "smell test" for clothes takes on a whole new meaning
- You start to view spiders more as naughty children than terrifying insects, and even catch yourself thinking "aww" to the tiny ones who are the less threatening likenesses of the palm sized ones
- You ride for an hour on a crowded bus with a bag full of semi-live chickens under your seat
- You unpack your bags from a car and repack them into the back of a crowded bus in order to save a dollar and a half
- You offer to pay people in salami, and they accept
- You leave town for a week and a rat dies in one of your bags, rendering ¼ of your belongings useless (can't claim that one, but it happened to a friend)
- You come home after a long day to find an old man whom you do not know reclining in your bed (also a friend's story)
- You begin to accept hot chocolate and crispy bread rounds as breakfast AND dinner fare.
- You equate the combination of river, razorblade, bar of soap, and pumas stone to a visit to a luxurious spa
- You realize, with literal distaste, that it's been over 24 hours since you last brushed your teeth. (It only happened once, ok! And I was asleep like ¾ of the time with an evil DR illness)
- You pay $1 for enough drinking water to last you and 7 friends a whole weekend
- You get sick when you leave the campo for a vacation to the city, instead of the opposite. Gotta have them viveres!
- You wake in the night to find a rat in bed with you, happily snuggled against your leg. (Thank God that wasn't me!) You take some consolation in the fact that there was a mosquito net between you and the vermin.
- You read 13 books in 4 months