I woke up with all the Friday feels and once again, looking forward to the weekend.

You’d think the weekend would be anti-climactic when you live in Congo. Generally speaking, we’re isolated and there’s not much going on where we live. But there’s a silver-lining, because the expats around here tend to make their own fun…out of necessity. I think that applies to compound life in general, really.

And that’s where my Peter Pan analogy comes in.

If you’re not familiar with this fictional character, I’ll paraphrase Wikipedia and tell you that he’s free-spirited, mischievous and he has a never ending childhood.

That’s right, he’s forever young!

Does that sound like a magic pill you’d like to have? Well, I can hook you up, but you might not like the side effects: electricity cuts, bad internet, expensive groceries, geographical isolation, expensive flights, far from family, and your co-workers are also your neighbours.

There is just something about life on expat in compound countries that suddenly turns back the hands of time and people tend to loosen up, have fun, and act like they’re in university again.

I for one, am a big fan of this behaviour!

I first experienced this in Indonesia when I arrived at a party and was taken back because not only was I at the same party as my daughter’s teacher, but her school principal was also there. And they were smoking (!!) (…because they’re French). The teacher and administrator in me initially thought that seeing these people outside school meant that we all needed to be on our best behaviour. But by the end of the night, I was hand and hand with my daughter’s teacher, running and jumping at full force into the pool with my clothes on. True story. The principal can vouch for it.

Occasions like this are not isolated. And to be honest, it’s not for everyone. Peter Pan syndrome is an introverts worst nightmare. Lucky for me, there’s not an introverted bone in my body. I took to this epidemic like a duck to water and over the years have found myself with Champagne glass in hand, submerged in many tropical pools in the wee hours of the morning.

Upon reflection, it’s not that adults in ‘normal’ situations wouldn’t like a taste of Peter Pan life; it’s just not really feasible. For one thing, kids.

People here refer to our compound as ‘Le Paradis des Enfants’ (Children’s Paradise) because French people like to make babies….and they all live on my compound. At first I struggled, because family apartment living isn’t standard for us home-owning-lawn-mowing-Canadians. We like to have houses with a yard, a BBQ, and maybe even a hockey rink out back. But we are as secure as can be behind our barbed wire paradise, and at any given day at 4:45pm the park at the foot of our building is crawling with kids. Our girls are in heaven because half their school lives here. They bounce between buildings, the park, and the tennis courts. Living here is a bit like 1980 where I can call out the balcony for the girls to come in at dinner. It’s perfectly normal for kids to be at a friends place without being invited and sometimes they stay for a bath if it’s getting to be that time of the evening. There is never, and I mean never, a lack of someone to play with. Think of it as living in university residence, but fast forward twenty years and its full of families, all living in a foreign country, without their extended family. You bond…and act a little crazy.

We give up creature comforts by living in places like Congo, but we gain luxuries like having a full time house help and driver. This took awhile to get used to and you can read about my first experience here, but now my perspective has shifted. We love having our cleaner/nanny and she has what is considered to be a very good, well paying job that supports her family. This alleviates a lot of our stress of the day-to-day which helps contribute to the Peter Pan lifestyle. It also allows expats to have someone reliable, that they know well, to watch their kids who is happy to have the extra babysitting money on the weekends.

And that’s how it happens. There’s nothing to do, so people plan events and parties that sometimes require costumes, often there’s dancing and sometimes, you end up in the pool.
I’ll (obviously) miss the Peter Pan syndrome that comes with life here, and I know there’s going to be a lifestyle adjustment when we move home. My brother has already said, “You are not ready for the real world. Prepare yourself for a crash landing.” Brothers!

Even though our daily life will shift when we repatriate, I’ll try and keep a little piece of Peter in my heart.

One things is for sure; it’s a good thing that backyard pools aren’t the norm in Canada because this time, I’ll be the teacher, and waking up to Facebook photos of me in a pool, sitting on my husband’s shoulders, partying like it’s 1999…been there, done that.

Now, I’ve gotta run, we’re heading out tonight and I can’t seem to find my fairy dust anywhere.