One of the most memorable parts of the book is when Miller is living alone and starts to worry that he’s becoming more and more selfish as a result. It really resonated with me because I have the same fears. I’m also interested in seeing the film portrayal of when he and some friends set up a booth at Reed University and apologized for things Christians have done in the past.
Going Nuts
The Peace Corps experience allows for a lot of self-reflection and increases gratitude. One of the things I’m becoming increasingly thankful for is that I don’t have any food allergies that would make living here even more difficult. I’m especially glad that I’m not allergic to nuts. They are one safe, easy way of getting protein. They’re a quick source of energy and easy to transport for lunch. Even better than the nuts I can get here is the peanut butter my mom sent. Trust me, if you were here, you would understand why peanut butter is more valuable than gold to PCVs. It’s a perfect food. It doesn’t need to be refrigerated. It can be spread on bread for sandwiches, spread on cookies for desserts, used as dip for pretzels or apples, baked into cookies, cooked into a Thai sauce, or just eaten straight out of the jar. At the rate I’m going, I’ll have finished my jar in a week. I know a PCV who ate a whole jar in one sitting. Don’t judge her. It’s perfectly understandable here. You can get a lot of things here. Coke, Snickers, soy sauce. But ain’t no peanut butter to be found anywhere, even in Ashgabat. So when those packages come weighed down with 18 ounces of creamy, brown goodness, we all say a little “God bless you, George Washington Carver.” before we break that flavor seal and dig in.