Access

The more keys you have, the more doors you can open. In my town, being a female means you can eat couscous with the women on Fridays. Being a foreigner means you can sit at the café with the other male teachers after class. The more people you meet in town, the more relationships you can build in the right direction. The better your language progresses, the better you can negotiate and extend your future opportunities. A year in site and I’ve gained access to almost every door in sight, but my keychain has really weighed down my pocket.

This new school year, I’ve made a conscious decision to start narrowing the keys I keep on my keychain.  Not to say I can’t add them back, down the road, if I find the doors useful. Some keys simply aren’t worth the weight.  Being the first volunteers in our town has meant a lot of conversations with many different types of people. I ate couscous in a different home several times a month and was invited to even more that just didn’t fit into my calendar. I’ve been invited to participate in events throughout the town’s educational centers and many more in the town’s numerous surrounding duwars (villages).  People still grasped at the understanding of our actual purpose in town, but they all competed to secure our presence in their respective meetings. I was incredibly lucky, but I was also very exhausted.

As the school year begins, I’m making a conscious decision to bide my time in starting any activities to test the true sustainability of any programs that are begun.  I’m choosing to accept invitations to meals or events that I only have a true interest in attending and with people that fill me up when developing a connection, rather than expend my energy.