The One With the Bacteria Infection

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Park in Moresele

The one thing about this country that drives me nuts is that people never plan. And, if they do plan, they don’t show up for their plans or they arrive two hours late. This is how I ended up in a town called Moresele today instead of lounging at the pool, catching some rays like I had hoped. Last night as I was washing my clothes in the pila, my mom came up to me and said “What are you doing tomorrow?” Naturally, I said nothing, b/c lounging at the pool really is nothing and I thought she might have a grand plan of something to do and since one of the Peace Corps values is to engage in cross-cultural interaction I thought I would hang out with my family. This is where I left the door WIDE OPEN for her to invite me along to a Saturday that would involve church all day long.

My host brother deciding not to go farther

I woke up this morning and performed yoga, in order to get my mind ready for this day of holiness ahead of me. Afterwards, I was joined for a pancake breakfast by the volunteer who lived in my house last year. Imagine my surprise when my host mom talked to her for what felt like hours while I sat by; it has taken me five weeks for her to barely say more than “Como esta” so at this point I don’t know where I went wrong, but I have a feeling it has something to do with the amount of time I put in with the four year old. After breakfast I ask my mom (again) what time we will be leaving for Moresele and she says 10:00 AM. Last night she said 9:00 AM. So, I go ahead and get ready, then sit on the couch reading a book until we leave at 11:00 AM. Five of us pile in the car, me, my older host brother (driving), one of my host sobrinas, my little nino, and my mom. The drive takes an hour and once we get there we realize that the main road of Moresele is dug up and being worked on, which today means there is a sign telling us we can’t go down it. After my host brother takes a left, he realizes his little four dour Honda isn’t going to make it down the mud path they call a road and decides to turn around. I tell him he needs a four by four, since I learned to say that word yesterday in Spanish class and he mentions to his mom that he needs a Four Runner. She laughs. As we creep down the next dirt path, we hit several pot holes and before moving on my host brother says a Hail Mary and waves his hands across his forehead and chest in the symbol of a cross. Then we inch forward and finally end up at the park. This is where I find out that hundreds of people have converged on this one town for communion, or “Cuerpo de Christ” but as soon as we get there my host mom takes off to the church and I am left in the park with my host sobrina and my little brother. For four hours. My older brother takes off with his iPod and I don’t see him again until we meet up for a Pepsi right before lunch. And that was my cross-cultural interaction for the day. So, I didn’t go to church, I didn’t get to meet any other family members and I didn’t get to speak any Spanish. I sat in the park and waited while hundreds of people from all over Honduras and El Salvador partook in communion, until I tell my host sobrina that we need to go for an adventure. We take off up hundreds of stairs to a view that goes nowhere. What this town really needs is a PC volunteer (I found out the next day they are getting a Muni D volunteer from our group). After the communion is over we have a late picnic lunch in the park where the world’s biggest, ugliest dog decides to invite himself into our area and attempt to eat our chicken and rice. I am 100% certain he has rabies by the look of skin and bones he is carrying around, but more worried about the bolo/homeless guy with no shoes nearby who keeps smiling at me with no teeth. This picnic is turning out to be something like a day in the San Diego Balboa Park and after the ants show up my host brother has decided he’s had enough, so we drop my mom off at her cousin’s house and then take off for the return trip home.

View of Morosele

Does this dog look like it has rabies to you?

My host mom serving up a picnic lunch

Waiting in line for "Cuerpo de Christ"

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I caught the 9:00 AM bus out of town this morning and headed back to Los Planes to see my host parents. The trip down was pleasant and when I knocked on her door around 10:00 AM, Rosa greeted me with a big hug and welcomed me right in as though I never left. The two of us spent several hours catching up and she told me all about a recent trip she took to El Salvador, while I told her all about the awesome projects I have been working on with the Peace Corps and the stoves I just built last week in Zamorano. Then she asks me if I can build one for her when I come back in a few weeks and I say yes, b/c I have faith I can, then hope it works b/c if it doesn’t she will find me and never forgive me. When my host dad arrives from being out, he tells me my Spanish has improved tremendously, which I don’t know is a real compliment or maybe my Spanish was just that bad a few weeks back! I share photos with them of everything I have been doing for five weeks, including teaching kids charlas, hiking La Tigra, my new host family, my birthday, etc, and they catch me up on everything they have been busy doing as well. Then, Rosa and I make manzana liquados and the three of us enjoy a lunch of grilled chicken and mashed potatoes before I say good-bye and “see you in three weeks.” I miss them so much, they are such awesome people and I was so lucky to have them in my life. I am so glad the Peace Corps has them as part of their host family program. I only hope I get to visit them more over the next two years.



Anyway, after my sentimental bit, I headed back up into Valle de Angeles where I wondered the streets like a tourist. I haven’t had that much free time, but decided to take a break today and just be. It was the perfect time, I think. With just three weeks to go, it gave me something to look forward to after working so hard for five weeks in FBT. After buying some postcards and peanut butter (I have needs!), I met up with another volunteer living in town and we chatted before I headed out of town in the early afternoon. When I finally made it back into Cantarranas, the sky had turned angry and rain pelted down on the cobblestone streets. As of late there has been massive amounts of rain. I was told that we have received 43 meters of extra rain to this point of the year as of now, and the rainy season goes until December. But, I don’t know if that is accurate.

Note: As of Friday, it has stormed severely every single day. There have been massive mudslides in Tegucigalpa and Cantarranas. Flooding is in a lot of places and there are many deaths.

So, back to Sunday night. My group of four meets up to plan our Monday morning charla presentation of health and nutrition. After two hours we have a pretty good idea of what we want to teach 9-14 year olds about how to be healthy. The main problem is we might have these age children and we might not. There is a major teacher strike going on in Honduras right now, too, so most of the schools are not in session. All of the public teachers here work under a union and the union is striking right now, so we are having to find private schools, or really rural schools that are willing to go out on a limb and allow us to come in and present to their kids. We are hoping for the best tomorrow.



Monday, August 16, 2010

Making it big time in the community!

Out of focus pic taken by someone else at our charla

Today can be summed up in one word “S&^$*Y.” If you don’t like the pun and gross bacterial infections upset you, I suggest you move on to another blog. The day started off normal enough with me sitting down at the breakfast table for day one of my “Tortilla Strike.” After my host mom eyeing me wearily, which I don’t really understand since she doesn’t make the tortillas herself (she buys them from a lady two blocks down), I left the house and met up with the other Muni D volunteers to head off and present our health and nutrition charla. When we arrived at the school 10 minutes away, our group popped into the first room available and met 12 or so school children, ages 8-12. We immediately started our charla with an ice breaker of everyone in a circle, share your name and show us what your favorite exercise is. I performed jumping jacks, not because it’s my favorite exercise, but b/c I know that word in Spanish. Moving on. Next up, was my portion of the discussion where I passed out photos of good and bad foods we had plied through the El Heraldo looking for in order to have the kids tape up on the board under “Saldable” and “No es Saludable.” It had taken us hours to find these healthy foods, since the El Heraldo is hell bent on leading kids to buying Coca-Cola’s and Cheetos with the few Lempiras they have, but it only took the kids five seconds to decide hamburgers and pizza were healthy for them. Soooo….I had to come on in with my improving Spanish skills and ask them why they thought the hamburgers and pizza were good for them. Because, they said! They have lettuce and pineapple on them. Of course! Just like Bill Cosby said about the chocolate cake, but no, today I won’t let this pass. So, after I finish my part of the presentation, we continue on with some role playing about how Jesse made lots of bad decisions (drinking river water, not applying mosquito repellent, you get the idea) and finally our charla is done. My facilitator tells me I did “Excellente” which is music to my ears since my Spanish has been improving over the last few weeks and I leave the school with a high boost of self esteem.

After lunch I hop in the Peace Corps vehicle for a ride to Teguz, where I have a follow-up doctors appointment at the dermatologist. On the way there my stomach begins to hurt and I figure the time has come for me to finally get a case of diarrhea. I have been so lucky this far, eight weeks in and only a little sinus infection; so as the car keeps winding through the hills, my stomach jiggles more and I lay down in the back. I start to feel slightly hot, and figure I’ll talk with the PCMO once my appointment is over at the dermatologist. At the dermatologist, things go smoothly (way better than last time, the receptionist is completely professional and the doctor has me in and out in no time with my prescriptions refilled). Thank goodness, b/c by now I am really not feeling so hot (except fever wise). So, when I get to the PC office, I go in to see the PCMO for my follow-up. When I sit down her first question is “Are you feeling okay?” I tell her, actually no. I tell her “I think my time has finally come to get diarrhea in this country. It has been difficult in Cantarranas with the no fruits/veggies, being regular and all” (she nods her head) “but today, something changed.” Then, she hands me this picture of what your diarrhea is supposed to look like (oh’, yeah, keeping it real) and asks me to point to the number I think my poop looks like. I think I’m a number 4 out of 6 right now, so she gives me some Pepto Bismol and tells me if it gets worse to give her a call. Before I even make it out of the building I am onto number 5, and about to vomit, so she hands me a bag for the car ride home and another new medicine. God bless the PCMO b/c she has personal plans that night, too, but tells me to call her if I need anything.

Next, I hop in the PC vehicle with my driver, another volunteer, and another staff member. Halfway back to FBT I start hurling in my vomit bag when the driver suddenly pulls over and I finish behind a light post and beside a barbed wire fence. Wow, that was so attractive. I can feel my fever rising, but I don’t want any of the AC on me and all I want to do is curl up and cry in my bed. Everything on me hurts and I feel like a truck ran me over, twice. After we finally make it back into town, I use all my energy to grab my backpack and meds and walk the 20 steps down the dirt road into my house. I immediately went to bed and woke up an hour later burning up and couldn’t move. In my mind I knew I had dengue. My mind raced for what all the signs were when you were sick; I remember not being able to move and fever as one of them. Plus, I really had to go to the bathroom and knew I couldn’t do it in this bed. So, after a few minutes, I finally lifted myself up (my back hurt the most, it felt like someone took a baseball bat to it) and tiptoed outside where I asked my host mom if she had a thermometer. She said no and felt my head and her response was “No, you don’t have a fever.” Look, crazy lady, I have a fever. I know my body really well and one, it never gets sick, and two, it is burning up. After completely filling up the toilet and not looking back, I grabbed my phone to call the PCMO where it blinked “EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY.” When I leave here, I’m never living in a brick house ever again. I creep to the edge of my bed and lay down. I lay there for five minutes until I decide that I know I have a fever and I hold my arm up as high as I can to my window until I get one bar and call the PCMO. She is in the middle of a personal event and I fill soooooo bad for interrupting, but I ask her if she can send over a thermometer to my house from our on-call person in town (she is an hour away, but he is nearby). She says no problem. By the time he gets there my host brother has run out and gotten a thermometer somewhere, but it’s only in Celsius and I have no idea how to read it; however, the PC thermometer says 100 degrees and I knew it. At this point I am sitting in the doorway of my bedroom with three people trying to hold me up and the PCMO back on the phone telling me she needs a stool sample in the morning. Whatever you need, doctor, just make it stop. Pills start appearing before me, then I am back in bed with a cold washcloth on my face. I take all the meds, put in my earplugs, look at the clock…it reads 8:00 PM. It is going to be a long night.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I woke up every hour last night with fever and diarrhea. At midnight I did the stool sample because I wasn’t sure I would have anything left this morning, but it was still coming. So did the vomit. Seriously, this is one way to get out of eating tortillas. My body is like a weight in bed. They came to pick up my stool sample at 7:30 AM, which I’m still not sure I even gave properly. That was something I didn’t think I’d have to worry about until I was at least 80. At 9:00 AM the PCMO called again and wanted to know what was wrong with my phone; I told her I live in a brick wall and she seemed to understand. So, now she is calling my house, which means that my entire host family knows my business…but since they all watched me almost die in my doorway last night I guess that is okay. I slept most of the day, until the early afternoon when the PCMO called and told me I had a massive bacteria infection taking over my white blood cells and blood in my stool. That will wake you up. No wonder I feel like crap. There is no telling where I got it at; but now I am on another antibiotic for three days. In the afternoon I got visits from my facilitators and other trainees; it’s good to know I am loved.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010
I am living off Gatorade and crackers. My family keeps trying to give me tortillas and coffee, so I had to have the PCMO talk to them and tell them I couldn’t handle that stuff yet. She had to explain “no grease.” My mom keeps trying to give me all this food and I keep vomiting! I’m just not ready yet! I will eat, don’t worry! I had the other trainees go get me some Sprite, Gatorade and crackers, so slowly my stomach is gaining strength. The diarrhea is now a 3 on the scale and I stayed home again today. I still needed to be near a bathroom, plus my fever finally broke this morning when I woke up. The PC came by again today with the thermometer, but it was an older glass one and there was no color inside to tell what my temp was. (If anyone from PC Washington is reading this, please can we start using those new digital thermometers like they have during blood drives, with the different tongue covers? They would be so much more efficient. Thanks!) Also, my family made some soup, which was good for my stomach, so I am slowly getting my strength back.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I made it back to class today, but without my hair fixed and no makeup. I was there about 60%. The PCMO called and put me on antibiotics for another 3 days and told me no physical activity through the weekend. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna go run a marathon after this week. I finished the day by eating more soup, drinking more Gatorade and eating more crackers. There are these crackers here called Maria’s which taste like Graham crackers a little bit; I have taken a great liking to them.

I also joined up with a new group to present another charla tomorrow. We are supposed to teach elementary kids the fundamentals of business. Yes, this sounds like it is going to be a disaster. We have a charla outline from the business side of PC, but teaching 7 year olds how to save their money in order to buy a gift for their brother sounds like something they won’t want to listen to. My part of the program is going to be handing out two candies near the beginning and then more at the end…equal to the number of candies they still have, so if they don’t have any candy left they don’t get any new candy, if they only have one candy left they only get one, etc. We are also doing a story about a young girl who wants to set up a piñata business, but finds out that piñatas are too expensive to make, so moves on to jelly. I had an idea that we should play store with the kids to teach them about buying and selling things and running a business, but was outvoted, we will see how tomorrow goes.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Teaching kids about business

Duplicate photo b/c I can't get it off the blog

I feel 100% better! I woke up today, took my bucket bath, fixed my hair, put on my make up and was the old Jenifer! Thank goodness, because that bacterial infection took it all out of me. That sucked! I hope that doesn’t turn back up again in the next two years. This morning we set off for an elementary school nearby in Cantarranas and were met by young, young students ages 5-8. After entering their classroom, our group set up our charla and then I brought them into a circle on the floor where I told them a story about when I was young and liked to spend my money on cokes and candy (okay, Dr. Pepper and candy, but they don’t have that here!), until one time I really wanted a book. But, my mom told me if I wanted that book I would have to save my money. (I’m preeeetttty sure this is a true story) So, anyway, I told them that today we would be learning the same thing, about learning to save our money for things we want to buy, when really we want to buy cokes and candy. Afterwards, our group presented the story of Suyapa, the young girl who wants to set up the piñata business, and then we asked them to draw their favorite item in a store and ask them to price it. Afterwards, we asked them how many cokes they would need to give up over X # of months in order to afford their item in the store, and finally I did my candy activity. Out of about 12 kids, I would say only three ate all their candy. The rest were split, 50-50 on the number that had all two left and the number that had one. Overall, the presentation did not go well. The kids were bored and most of the material was over their heads. The business development model is for 5th and 6th graders, but with the teacher strike going on right now it’s hard for us to even find students to present to. So, I will strike this up to a lesson learned and move on to next week. We have three charlas then, too.