All of the volunteers in Namibia (the volunteers from my group, and the volunteers from the two other groups still in Namibia) converged on Swakop. It was the first time many of us had seen each other. It was a joyful time for me, getting to see such wonderful people.
During one of the training sessions, we talked about the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale. This scales is used to measure the relative amount of stress life changes can cause. Peace Corps service (and all that makes it up) resulted in a score of 320.
Here are some other relative scores for major life events:
Death of spouse 100
Divorce 73
Marital separation 65
Detention in jail 63
Marriage 50
As we know, being stressed can increase the chances of illness, see these crazy facts below:
Less than 150 --> 30% chance of developing a stress-related illness
150 - 299 --> 50% chance of illness
Over 300 --> 80% chance of illness
Ouch! That's a lot of stress!
I felt a lot better after learning the above -- I had thought I was just weak before hearing it.:-)
Sleep well, the moon is full in Africa tonight!
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