Ants in my cereal

Before being assigned to my post, as I waited all those endless “in-between” months, I read a few books by RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) about their service. One was about the very first group of PCVs to be sent to the Philippines back in the early ‘60’s, the Peace Corps’ main focus then. And wow do I feel lucky to be a PCV in the 21^st century. The author talked about, among other things:
-the tedious voyage across the Pacific just trying to get to post

-the various fungi that grew on various parts of their bodies after months of scorching heat and torrential tropical storms

-how the main roads became roaring rivers during the rainy season that they had to perilously fjord in their Jeeps in order to get to site

-large bugs and reptiles

-and how there was no mail and no phones—well, actually, in that regard it’s kind of similar to my town here, I suppose

Needless to say, they were a different kind of volunteer back then; I don’t know if I could have handled it. Life without Internet is hard enough, heh.

Anyway, I hadn’t really remembered that book until just the other day, when one passage came back to me in particular: it was about the three universal mental stages volunteers went through in their two years in the Philippines. And how by watching a volunteer eat, you could tell which stage they were in.

If, upon finding insects in their food, the volunteer pushed their bowl away in disgust and stopped eating, they were undoubtedly a new recruit. If, upon finding insects in their food, they meticulously picked out every bug then continued eating, they were probably around halfway into service. But if the volunteer, upon finding insects in their food, kept right on eating without giving it a second thought, it was clear that they’d been in the Philippines for a long time (too long?).

The other day, halfway through a bowl of cereal (precious Honey Nut Cheerios that I’d brought back from the States and thus relished and ate only on special mornings), I realized that dozens of little tiny blackish-reddish ants had apparently invaded the box and were now floating in my milk…

I kept eating.

PS—I also nearly ate a moth by accident the other night. Won’t go into details, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t pleasant for either of us.