Hola

Okay I forgot my camera cord so this entry is missing some awesome pics but I'll post them next time. So check back again.

Alright so it’s been a while since the last time I posted but when I used the internet last week I didn’t have enough time to write up a blog entry. So this one is pretty long cuz lots of stuff has heappened and I have some funny stories that I hope you’ll enjoy and yes you can laugh at all of them even if I wasn’t laughing at the time. But I can now…it’s always good to be able to laugh about the crap that goes on in one’s life.

So the week training with the other volunteers of the Rural Health and Sanitation Program went well although it was really cold but it was nice to be in the company of other gringos for a while and catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in four months. After the training I stayed in the capital for two nights to catch up on some computer work and just hang. I went to see this really awesome band at this place called La Luna that is so chill and totally my kind of place and has some of the best salsa in town. For those of you how are familiar with the artist Fernando Delgadillo (which I think Fatemeh is the only one) the band I went to see was very similar to his sound and still only fuller. They even covered one of his songs actually.

Anyways, after getting back to my site I made the big move out of my family’s house and into the little brick house (room really cuz it is just a room). It was a good feeling but also really weird leaving La Punta, the side of town I had been living on and was so familiar and happy with. I went to town with two friends, Henry and Griselda, and bought a fridge, a dresser, and a bunch of kitchen and house stuff. And the next day I moved all my other stuff in and fixed up the room. It looks good…I really like it. I mean it’s small but just for one person it’s suitable.

So there are a lot of scorpions in the house partly because no one was living in it before me and so it wasn’t cleaned very often but also because there are a lot of trees and plants around the house…breeding grounds and home to lots of stuff like scorpions, lizards, snakes, spiders, etc. Anyways, I’m becoming a pro at killing scorpions…I’ve probably killed about ten these first two weeks in the house. They like to hide behind things that lean against the wall, like the mirror or a bag you have propped up against the wall…where it’s dark. Anyways, one was behind my backpack the other night and so I took a pic of it and then whacked it with my shoe. Well it didn’t even do anything, the stupid thing ran away with it’s pinchers flared and it’s tail up ready for the attack. So it ran into the corner behind my dresser, and since I had found a scorpion in my bed just that morning I thought it better to search the thing out a kill it before it made it’s way into my bed to sting the hell out of me. So I was able to get it out and with three whacks of my shoe it was nice a dead, as this picture shows. But I’ll tell you these scorpions are vicious because it always takes more than just one whack of my shoe to kill the damn things.

Ok so I think it was my second night in my house, about 6pm in the evening, and I was sweeping the ceiling because it’s made of woo bars and tiles so it’s really dusty and full of leaves and cobwebs and shit. So I’m sweeping in the corner of the room and when I turn around there is a curled up tarantula on the floor, yes I said TARANTULA! So I gasp but since it was curled up I freaking thought it was dead and with one sweep of the broom I woosh it outside and it stays there all curled up and dead. Breathing hard, I ponder…what do I do now? Now what would you do in this case. Some of you maybe nothing cuz it’s dead, others step on it to double check that it’s dead, others maybe run screaming out of the house. Well what I did was text my friend Henry. And he was like well what the hell do you want me to do. Well, duh, come to my house I said. The thing is I wanted to hang up my mosquito net but now knowing that there were tarantulas falling from the freaking ceiling I was afraid. (Oh and for those of you who don’t know…I’m deathly afraid of spiders. Ask my dad. On many occasions I have broken down crying just at the sight of the things. But I would like to proudly say that my tolerance for spiders has tremendously increased since I’ve arrived in Mendez because the huge spiders that were in my room in my family’s house used to freak me out. But by month three or four I would just scare them away. No big deal. But we’re talking about tarantulas here…big, black, hairy tarantulas.) So while I’m waiting for Henry to arrive I check the dead spider outside and continue sweeping the ceiling and what do I find but ANOTHER tarantula! CREES? It’s was up on one of the wooden bars that goes across the ceiling, just sitting waiting there like it was ready to pounce. So I stand there starring at the spider to make sure it doesn’t run away. So Henry gets there and pokes the dead spider with the broom, but on no, it’s not dead, it had just been playing dead for the last ten minutes. So he grabs a brick and kills it and then knocks down the other one and kills it too while I stand way far away on the verge of crying and vomiting at the same time. But thank goodness I haven’t had any more furry visitors thus far.

Alright moving on to the next story. So the third night in my house my friends Wendy, Isa and Henry came over to hang out and we were beginning to play a game when Wendy and Isa saw something strange outside so we all go to the window to see and it’s this guy with a huge sheet over his head like a cape so the only body part exposed is the face (I know this sounds weird like Halloween or something but I’m serious.) So the guy is walking in the street in front of the house and slowly, like creepy slowly, he begins to turn his head to look at the house and all my friends scream and slam the windows and door shut. I need to mention that Salvadorans are really superstitious. They believe in all these ghost stories, witchcraft, bad spirits, etc. So my friends thought it could have been some phantom o no se que. So we’re all freaked out and peeking out at the street through the crack at the bottom of the window and the guy passes by again walking back the other way. And again he creepily and slowly turns his head to look at the house but instead of waiting so we could see his face my friends scream again and try to open the window so we didn’t see his face. My friends are all freaked out and saying that they don’t want to leave to go home nor do they want to leave me in the house alone so they call their grandmas to let them know the situation and we start to cook dinner and we hear things hitting the house. The asshole is throwing stuff at the house and then starts knocking and scratching at the door. So I called my neighbor who is one of my counterparts and the president of the ADESCO. He tells me he’ll check it out but he never comes to the house, but the guy stopped bothering us. In the morning I tell another neighbor about it and he says that his wife also saw the guy and that it’s just an idiot who gets drunk and high sometimes and does stupid shit. What a freaking idiot.

Okay so we are in the heart of turtle season, meaning that tons of turtles and laying their eggs right now so one night the ministry of the environment declared a VEDA, which is when all the eggs collected on the beach that night have to be donated to the vivero so that they can hatch. So I went and walked the beach for more than three hours looking for turtles with other tortugeros, Griselda and two kids. We had fun but we didn’t find any turtles. None came out to lay eggs. I was so disappointed because I really wanted to see a turtle. But I’ll just have to go again.

Now for my teen-bopper moment….There is this music group called Axé Bahia that has a dance/music television show on primetime every night of the week and on Saturday evenings they have live concerts in different locations all over the country and they televise it. Yeah it’s kinda weird…So Jiquilisco (the municipio that Mendez is a part of) had it’s patronal festivals last week and to kick off the festivities Axe Bahia came to perform so I went with some friends and it was fun. I wanted to go up on the stage and dance with them cuz I know some of their dance moves (not like they’re that hard). But I got there a little late and they had already invited people up on the stage. But yeah that was teenie-bopper moment. And one of the guys in the group is so cute, and has such a beautiful ass, mind you he’s probably gay, but I just choose to overlook that.

Now for the medical issues. After going to the beach that one night my left big toe started hurting and it only kept getting worse. Last Monday it was getting pretty red and swollen so I showed it to my friend Veronica and she was like well you have an ingrown toenail. SO she cut some of the toenail out and told me to wash it well and take some pain killers. Well Tuesday it was worse and I could hardly teach my exercise class. It hurt to walk. So Wednesday I went to the clinica to see what the doctor had to say about it and he was like well we should really cut some of the nail out but if you don’t do that just rest it, don’t walk, take antibiotics for the infection and painkillers for the pain and if it’s still hurting by Saturday come back. Well technically for all medical issues we have to go to the capital to consult the Peace Corps medical staff, so I sucked it up and called them because I was really worried about my toe and didn’t want it to get worse. Thursday I go to the medical staff and they’re like oh it’s not that bad there is hardly an nail in there. So they cut some more nail out, clean it out really well and jam cotton in between the nail and the skin because my cuticle and the skin around the nail was so red and inflamed it hurt to have it touching the nail. I go back in them morning and they do the same. Only the dumb nurse was like oh look, there is still another piece of nail. And I’m thinking well I fucking hope she gets it all out or else it’s never gonna heal and I’m just going to have to come back here. So she takes the nail out, it’s all bleeding, and I’m gripping my leg to restrain myself from punching her in the face because it hurts so badly. So I go back to my site with my toe all bandaged up thinking that it would get better. But no, it gets at least THREE TIMES WORSE!!!!!!!! Yes worse! And on top ot that my stomach starts hurting and leaves me doubled over in pain half the day. Saturday night I called my friend crying because it hurt to badly to clean it myself so I popped 800mg of Ibuprofen and cleaned it out. Sunday night it was even worse so I started taking antibiotics for the infection because it was so red, inflamed, bleeding and pussing. The dumb nurses at peace corps didn’t even give me antibiotics – they were like oh no it’s not infected. Hello! Yes it was. So just this past Monday it starts feeling better but I go back to the clinica and the doctor cleans it out again, some of the swelling has gone down and he gave me meds for both the toe and the stomach pains. And now, Thursday, my ingrown toenail is almost all better and my stomach no longer hurts. But seriously, I was feeling like such shit and so worried that my toe was gonna get really infected and that I was going to get gangrene or something crazy and have to get my toe cut off. But no, all is well.

In Mendez there are three men’s futbol teams, one of which is one a higher level and almost won first place in the entire state last year. Well the season is starting up again and it is tradition to have a madrina (like a godmother) or a reina (queen) of the team that gifts a soccer ball to the team and goes to their games and such. The team, Navigacion y Pesca, invited me to be their madrina. All the guys on the team are really nice and I’m friends with some of them so I figured, heck why not, it’ll be fun and I’ll be able to make better friends with these guys and go to their soccer games for free. Last Sunday was the inauguration of the teams in the area and a small tournament. It was really fun. We had a small parade, I presented the ball to the team and we hung and watched games. Unfortunately they lost the first game so they didn’t advance but this Sunday is the first real game in which they start gaining points.

Alright so I think that’s about it. Anyone make it this far down? I hope so cuz some of the stories, well in my opinion were really funny. Right now I’m at an HIV/AIDS training with two gals from my community. One of them is a nurse in Maternal and Children’s Health and the other is my friend and awesome joven, Tania.