When We Laughed

Once upon a time, I got rid of a bunch of stuff, said lots of goodbyes, packed two bags, boarded a plane, and moved to South Africa for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. This is the part where the movie reel glitches and the frames distort. The plotline is interrupted. Rewinding the picture show, the image returns to the airport.

This past week is the rewind and the glitch is COVID-19. In a matter of days, the life I had planned and worked toward for the last 14 months ended. I was back at Sacramento International Airport 25 months early than expected.

The world is entirely different than when I left for South Africa in January. I did not come back to any familiar reality. While reading through Peace Corps reentry documents, I can’t help but laugh at their suggested coping mechanisms. Anything related to interacting with others was off the table. Suggestions such as journaling and reading are impossible for me to focus on. Looking at pictures from my time in South Africa to feel warm and fuzzy is a short-lived experience because I only took a few.

One of my cohort’s first days in South Africa, I pulled out my camera while we played fishbowl. The bright green grass was the most perfect backdrop to capture these news friends smiling and laughing. I took 40 pictures on my camera then gave it to Peace Corps to store for two months until training was over. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wish I had used it to capture this joy every day.

So while I quarantine for two weeks absolutely riddled by fear of what could be housed in my body after 44 hours of international travel, these pictures are little bits of light.