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]
- tipping
- really rude strangers [oh wait, that’s everywhere]
- people putting 120% into their job/work/career
- American xenophobia
- paying off student loans
- American drinking culture
- Traffic
- driving my car
- driving my car *with a good playlist*
- cooking [yes, I know I can cook here, and I do. But it’s definitely not the same]
- restaurant service/hospitality
- the thing your cat does when you get home at the end of the day
- really good food
- National parks, state parks, county park, city park [Don’t take the US park system for granted, people]
- food shopping [yes, really. Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, farmers markets… so much better than markets
- my friends
- wearing active sportswear when you’re not working out
- bagels, burritos, hummus pretzels , pizza, tacos,
- not being stared at *all the time*
- not being asked for photos
- being understood or being able to articulate myself
- the coldness in the air when summer turns to fall
- leaves turning in the fall
- wearing a coat and scarf
- Yoga studios
- Camping
- Museums
- having people over
- being close to the beach
