Friday 17 February 2012

Muffins and Musings

Next week marks the 16 month anniversary of my arrival in Rwanda.  I know that some people read Peace Corps blogs expecting tales of adversity and epiphany...well, this week I had my own moment of quiet reflection, and thought I would share.
It came from what we PCVs like to call "student gems."  That's when a student writes something that isn't quite correct, but is still somehow true.  As I sat at home, grading exercises on antonyms, I stumbled upon this unexpected revelation: "A ship is not the muffin."  It was such a profoundly simple statement, yet so profoundly...right.  You can't argue with its logic: a ship IS not the muffin.  Why, just a few weeks back, I bought a muffin in Kigali and sat staring at it in utter bewilderment for fully five minutes.  Should I butter it?  Should I set sail on it?  What if pirates try to snatch my muffin?  How will I defend it?  What if I want my ship toasted?  Can I outfit raisins in the hull?  And why is it A ship and THE muffin?  Is there only one muffin that a ship cannot be?
So, this little blog post goes out to all my fellow Ed 2 PCVs.  Here's to the last sixteen months--sometimes we love out jobs, sometimes we want to quit, sometimes we find inspiration where we least expect it.  And sometimes, just sometimes, if we're lucky, we can have out ship and eat muffins too.

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