I drove home in the back of a pick-up truck yesterday with 223 trees in the hot Salvadoran sun after a four-day long training. Now 39 families in my community are planting trees and I am a more informed person.
In the training I gained some really good information regarding funding projects and business plans and learned how to make natural aloe shampoo and mango marmalade. I also sat through some pretty boring sessions, but overall I got some good skills and knowledge under my belt and got to catch up with fellow volunteers. More importantly, I am excited to implement some of the new information in my activities here in my community.
In other news, I am sick...again. One of the aspects of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is dealing with all sorts of new bugs and sicknesses and injuries, and I seem to have experienced my fair share. Sure there are a few lucky volunteers who don't get to know one of the three medical officers extremely well, but they are far and few between and I'm not one of them. This week I am heading to the capital (the medical head of Peace Corps El Salvador), for a consult in which I will ask about no fewer than nine issues. Aside from the green-phlegm, no-voice cold, I need to adjust medication, go to physical therapy for an injury, ask about a different minor but still bothersome injury, refill medical supplies, do a previous illness follow-up, and check on a potential intestinal parasite, among a few other things. I'm not asking you to pity me; I'm just giving you a slice of Peace Corps life. I feel like "that kid" with all of the problems, and I'm probably a slightly extreme case, though I imagine there are others like me. And I even boil my water, sleep under a mosquito net, always wear shoes (some parasites enter via the feet), don't eat meat, wash my veggies (though I could probably do a better job with this), and follow basic medical safety tips.
0 comments:
Post a Comment