Without realizing it at the time, I made a resolution in 2011 to try out facial hair for the first time in my life. Facial hair experimentation is far from uncommon among Peace Corps volunteers.
For one, our job doesn’t demand a clean appearance the way an office job does. Some might say it even encourages just the opposite, as water and bathing is limited in many volunteer sites (I can’t use this as an excuse; I’ve got my own fully-functioning shower). The obvious result is facial hair.
Also, a solid mustache can be good for street cred. Or respect, as they call it here. It doesn’t matter if you’re more educated than everyone in town. All they see is a young American bumbling in Spanish about the importance of hand washing. I wouldn’t respect me either. Slap a mustache on that guy and all of a sudden his Spanish starts to sound smooth.
Finally, growing facial hair is a fundamental part of “finding oneself” for a PCV. “You’ll never forget your two years in Peace Corps. It’ll change your perspective of the world. You’ll come back to the US a changed person,” they say. But when you expect to change and you’re mostly the same person, a beard helps you (and all your Facebook friends) believe that you have changed.
And so on January 1st, 2011, desperate for respect, anxious to find myself, but too hung-over to find the shower or a razor, I let the facial hair go. After a month I had patches of hair on my cheeks. I called it a beard.
Just last week I had “Early In-service Training” in northern Peru with the other Water and Sanitation PCVs in my group (PC 16). For fun, the guys decided to have a mustache contest in the month leading up to training. I felt good about the Fu Manchu I sported for the week of training. I then tried out a normal mustache for 10 minutes before getting clean again. I don’t know about Peru, but the mustache sure changed my perspective of the world.
You look too much like your dad with the beard (I can remember him sporting one at about the same age.) You did rock the Fu, although the regular looked ok, too. While I don't look like myself without the goat, I can't grow a decent mustache. Good facial hair is a gift: Treasure it.
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