What I do when I’m bored at site

Peace Corps Volunteers around the world are pretty much in charge of their own schedule. For Peace Corps Indonesia specifically, since our primary project of teaching English is much more structured, we are told to teach a minimum of twenty hours per week, and to be at school for a minimum of 30 hours per week. However, no one is clocking in and out each day. It's up to PCVs to create their schedules with their counterparts, and hopefully we stay at school for the minimum amount of time every week. However, that's only 17.9% of the week. I most definitely knew that there would be a decent about of free time in Peace Corps.

In Peace Corps, one can bury themselves in their projects, or spend two years doing nothing. Some use most weekends to travel around the countries they are posted in, others are "site rats" and barely leave. I'd like to think I'm kind of in the middle, taking an appropriate amount of time away from site for weekend trips, while trying to stay at site as much as possible. Although now I feel like I left site excessively last year, either for medical reasons, for trainings, or to see my friends. I'm now feeling much happier in my community and in my work and find no need to leave that often now. I've jumped in projects headfirst. If any fellow PCVs are reading this: runs around the neighborhood, bike rides with friends, building a community with fellow church-goers, talking with your host family, and learning to live slowly are what you are going to remember after service. You're with your community 90% of the time, and other PCVs for 10%.

Be Present. Just Be Present. That's a feat that most Americans cannot accomplish. Peace Corps is the perfect opportunity for volunteers to release themselves from the American mindset of always being occupied or productive in a fast-paced society. I've had a hard time with this while here. It was until Ramadan of last year that I finally became comfortable with the silence and boredom that comes with school holidays and cancelled class. I've gained an appreciation for unstructured time with family, friends and neighbors, hours of uninterrupted reading time (I read 34 books last year) and for time itself. In a lot of ways, I'm not having the Peace Corps experience I thought I would, for better or worse. But I am here, and these past 18 months are changing me and clarifying me as the future version of myself. Whether I like it or not, it's changing me, and that is something powerful. I'm growing so much more aware of who I am, where I am, what I can give, and where I'm going.

Here's some things I do when I'm bored (I mean, truly bored) at site:

Go on a walk

Go on a run

Go on a bike ride

Listen to music and stare at the wall

Play solitaire

Look up “how to win solitaire”

Watch “trader joe's grocery haul” on YouTube

Shop for furniture for the apartment I don’t have

Look up “cost of living in Washington, DC”

Read, read, read, and read some more

Do my nails

Play frisbee with the neighborhood kids

Make a cup of coffee

Play scrabble on my phone

Do some yoga

Write a blog post

Go on another bike ride

Plot revenge

Sweep my floor

Clean my floor by using individual wet wipes

Look up “best places in the world to live”

Look up “graduate schools that don’t require the GRE”

Organize my closet

Clean my house

Take a three hour nap

Make some fresh squeezed orange juice

Watch a movie

Organize my calendar

Organize my google drive files

Call loved ones back home

Work on Peace Corps secondary projects

Send a voice message to other PCVs

Journal, journal, journal

Put on a face mask

Plan a trip somewhere in Indonesia

Regret deactivating my instagram

Listen to “My Favorite Murder” and other podcasts

Look up “best vegan restaurants in London”

Look up “how do I move to Denmark”

Look up “humane ways to trap a rat”

Remember why I’m here how joyful this whole experience is, despite the ample free time!