A List of Things I Do and Don’t Miss about village life
long commutes (my Rwanda house is less than a five minute walk to the health center; my SC house is a 40 minute drive to the hospital)
sitting in front of a computer at a desk all day for work
housing prices (so much sadness and makes me miss my Rwanda house)
stark boundaries drawn between work and home/social life (I almost never see patients from the hospital outside the hospital)
bringing work home with you (I do not do hospital work at home, but I did so much PC work away from the hospital)
dating apps are pure hell (I don’t use them in either country)
shopping *all the time* (market shopping sucks the life out me, but so does Target and Publix)
spending money (I don’t spend a ton in the village, but stepping out of my SC house costs like $100)
Lines–(I don’t like to queue, but I appreciate the fact the North America and Europe respects the queue. Rwanda generally does not but is at least better than a lot of other countries)
$12 salads (need I say more)
South Carolina’s crumbling, antiquated transportation infrastructure (made worse by Hurricane Helene)
not using the metric system (come on, America)
FOMO (The Fear Of Missing Out)
Parking (and driving)
“Keeping up with the Jones'” mentality
waking up really late (I like getting up at 6am now??
being afraid of active shooters
holidays centered on getting drunk [ 4th of July, cinco de mayo…]
watching the news all the time [blissfully unaware is sometimes ideal]
