Excuse me, have you seen my comfort zone?

Well in my early days as a Peace Corps trainee, I would joke that Peace Corps has prepared me for two things- packing and waiting. It seemed that we were always going from one place to another, shuffling along the way- a hotel stay here, then off to training sites, back to the capitol, back to our sites, off to visit other volunteers. Here to there, back and forth- await further instructions slowly eroding at our self will coddling us into the false sense of security brought about with a detailed itinerary and then we were sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers and the schedule stopped...
So here I am with my second host family in a new town with a new, pretty undefined job description trying to figure out who I am and what the hell I'm doing here. Hello, comfort zone, where are you?
Cut to a month later... Comfort zone is still nowhere in sight, but sometimes that's nice. Don't get me wrong, I like to be lulled to sleep by the peaceful monotony of routine foreknowledge. I like to be able to go home and not have four pikni (kids) hanging off of me, all piling into my bed with their dirty feet touching all of my things. To be able to leisurely go to the bathroom without having at least one child knocking on the door would be nice. "Ms. Christine, what are you doing in there?" "Going to the bathroom." "Can I come in?" "No, honey, I'll be right out." "Ms. Christine, I want to come in." I'm sure my digestive system would benefit from a little peace. I enjoy not having to feign enthusiasm over fish heads and pig tails. I would love to take at least a lukewarm shower and shave my legs without goose bumps. Or to show up to work and have an idea of what I'm doing so that I can prepare for the day rather than be thrown into uncomfortable and sometimes unethical situations.
But that's not what I signed up for. I get 'The Question' pretty often, 'why did you join the Peace Corps?" and the answer is rarely ever the same. One of the main reasons though, one of the selfish reasons, is that I wanted to push myself as far outside of my comfort zone as I possibly could. I wanted unknown surroundings, people, places and things. I wanted, and still want to, evaluate my life without the haze of monotony. For me, it was getting to the point that who I was was defined by the people around me, by constructs that had been in place for years. Perceptions became truths that were accepted with minimal resistance. Those truths became tethers that kept me grounded, connected, but stagnant too. Kazantzakis said that everyone should be just a little bit mad, otherwise you'll never cut the tie that binds and truly be free.
So if you do come across my comfort zone out there, keep it. I don't need it anymore. I'm creating new comforts and new truths for myself. And when those truths become too familiar, I guess I'll just have to cut the string again.