Ilana in the Cloud Forest

Good afternoon, my dedicated readers, As some of you may have already picked up on in my last couple of newsletters—and for those of you whom I have spoken to directly—this has been a difficult period of time for me in my service. If I'm being honest, it's been so challenging that I've even been considering leaving service early and finding a job in the U.S. It's not that anything bad has happened, per se. But I've found myself feeling like my service no longer has meaning and that I'm no longer making an impact on my community. I think a lot of that has to do with my own personal feelings of burnout and the general culture of the community of not participating in activities outside of the home, which have made for a challenging combination. That, and being physically and socially isolated a lot of the time.  Well, after speaking with a number of you—and I am so so grateful for all of the advice I have received—I have decided to stay in the Peace Corps and try t...