Friday, October 19, 2007

Sweet Recovery

Well i am doing better, thank you all for the concern and support. it was hard being so far away from home, all i wanted was my confy bed (which i then realized that i sold it before i left, so even if i was home i wouldn´t have lol) but i´m doing well. going through the motions. i taught on thursday, horrible time managment, but i am learning, and it is a process. it´s called training for a reason i suppose. And i find out my site on this coming wednesday! we are all so nervous and excited. keep your fingers crossed for me guys!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Parasites, Amoebas, and Bacteria, oh my!

Well this has been an interesting week and a half. We are currently in the process of getting our site assignments, so we had our volunteer visit and had a site fair in which we learned about all the different departments. Friday we had our mid-training language interview which i did horrible on, but oh well.
By far, the most exciting thing that has happened to me so far, is having the oportunity to experience what it feels like to a whole little party of parasites and bacteria living inside of me! Ok, so maybe exciting is the best adjective to use to describe this experience. Last week, the overwelming feeling of nausea forced my host sister and i to go to a labortorio in the next town over, after carrying my lovely sample with me, then getting blood taken (which luckily was just a prick on the finger, but i did NOT know that going in and was nervous as all good be), and waiting an hour to get the results that i had.... lumbrices (huevos de lumbrices to be exact) living inside of me! But that´s just the beginning, but yesterday I got to go the lab again, different side effects this time, and i currently am in the possession of amoebas and bacteria! Not gonna lie, i´d prefer the worm eggs right now, but I´m doing well, got some meds (gotta take 3 different kind!) and i´m just sleeping alot. The lab i went to yesterday was beautiful by the way, so that was reassuring. And i really can´t complain, bc like i´be been saying, i want to make all the mistakes possible during training so that i´ll know how to handle things when i get to my site! I trully feel prepared now. hahahahaha
The only thing that bums me out was that i didn´t get to enjoy my afternoon off yesterday or go out with my friends last night! I have been looking forward to that for weeks now!
I wish i had time to really talk about Nicaragua. All of my friends i feel have shared very insightful opinions about the country and culture and the similarities and differences between here and the US. I promise i´ll get to that, but you know it will be long so i´ll save it for another day!
Also, currently Nicaragua has experienced heavier than usual rains and a lot of flooding and landsliding has been the result. All of the volunteers from the northern departments have been evacuated from their sites and are safe and sound, all others are awaiting further notice, but while the peace corps community in Nica is safe, many Nicaraguans have not been as fortunate. Many are sick, stranded from help, are missing or unfortunately did not survive, please keep the country and the region in your thoughts. The massive amount and constent pace of the rain has over saturated the ground, and even in urban areas there is a lot of flooding.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

he regresado!

I returned yesterday night from a ciudad in the department of Matagalpa. Amazing place. Went through matalgalpa, matagalpa (capital city of matagalpa) and it was awesome. the mountains are soo pretty and views the clouds and the sky of every hue of light blue imaginable. Definately was a visit that was interesting. The town i visited was large, and i am now definately thinking that i want to go to a small site. Which is strange b-c of you would have asked me before i left, one of my biggest fears was that i would be placed in a site that was small. I definately feel like a town of 15,000 ppl is too huge for me. a few thousand would be perfect. But who knows where they will send me. I wish i could say that i returned rejuvenated and ready to work, but i think i hade more motivation before i left. at least more idealism-optimism. Now i see how things can set in and how easy it is to just do the status quo. I don´t want to just do the status quo. That´s definately not my reason for being here. If anything it is the exact opposite. I think i have officially come into what Cuerpo de Paz calls the second phase of adjustment. The "honeymoon" period has worn off and reality is setting in. Or my perception of reality which is false and totally nitpicky. hahaha. i will adjust, the visit helped a bit with reality check too. I know that I can do this job, and that was something that I needed to be reassured of. However, the trip back was an interesting one. I returned solo (my trip there was with another aspirante). I took a bus that went straight to managua so i did not have to go through the dept. capital. However, the bus was packed with ppl! And i don´t mean sitting 3 to a seat packed, i mean crammed like sardines standing in the aisle packed. I was scared of squishing the little boys standing beside me when we took a sharp curve. For roughly 3 of the 4 hrs i stood. Which stunk not only b-c i was tired and hot and feared my nausea from the night before might return, but b-c i missed the view, i couldn´t see out the windows! But finally, about an hour outside of managua, the old man sitting in the seat next to me stood up so i could sit down, very kind of him considering it really looked like he could use all the rest he could get. And THEN I SAW THE VIEW, mountains and a river that looked so peaceful, and the rain started so the clouds came in, and i LOVE the rain (as you all know) IT was wonderful, made the 3 hrs of standing totally worth it.
This week has sped by. I cannot believe that my 5th week here is over! However, i am glad to be back in my training town with my host family. They are so comforting, they really help me feel at home. Especially when my stomach is cramping and they tell me that i am not allowed to have eggs or milk b-c that will make it worse, and when they check my body temp. b4 they serve me coffee just to make sure i am not too cold (b-c that would just make me worse). They have already invited me back for christmas, and i could not be more excited. well maybe if all my family and friends from the states came down to visit, but i am not seeing that as being a possibility. :)
We still have so much to do before training is over, and we really do not have much time!
I wish i had a funny story to tell, I am sure i will after this weekend. We are finally going to visit the volcano! Definately recommend to all of you to read the Moon Handbook to Nicaragua, its amazing and the deatials are awesome. written by RPCVs (returned peace corps volunteers) that did their training in one of the pueblos blancos tambiƩn.
Next week i am going to visit a dump! sooo excited, will explain more later!