Orellana

This one is entitled Orellana because Philippa and I left our storyboard-type thing that we need for our discussion tomorrow on the bus last night...fortunately we managed to get it back today after inquiring at the garage here in our pueblo.

Anyways, things are still bizarre. Great, but bizarre. What day is today, Wednesday, I think? This past weekend was so much fun - we had what they refer to as ¨community interchange¨ Saturday morning. San Miguel Dueñas (us) switched with a town of Youth Development volunteers that live in San Mateo Milpas Altas. We each had to show each other around our towns, in Spanish, and talk about the town and its surrounding areas, etc. For the afternoon, a group of us met up in Antigua, which is always interesting. In Antigua, a couple of us went thift-store shopping in the market, referred to here as paca. The market is absolutely massive...probably the the square footage of a WalMart or some other superstore, but all individual stalls and crazy jam packed. I got this sweet Astros t-shirt.

On Sunday, about 20 of us rented microbuses and went to a Pacific coast beach, very near Puerto San José if you´re looking at a map. It was actually this private/residential part, so it was really pretty - San José is supposed to be pretty nasty. I ended up bartering with this guy on the beach (black sand beaches on the Pacific coast, by the way - volcanic ash) and went horseback riding on the beach with him for 40 quetzales. There´s about 8Q in $1...you do the math. We had a fantastic time.

On the not vacationing side of things, things have been...sluggish, I´d say. We´ve been helping in our town´s Puesto de Salud, which is interesting. Last week, we split up and each tailed a worker in the Puesto (there´s only 2 nurses and 1 tech, no docs...very small). I was actually with one of the health promotors (it may take an entire update to explain los promotores de salud, and exactly what I´m supposed to be doing with them). Our first task was to remove stitches from this guy´s head. Doña Chus is going to town scrubbing at the crown of his scalp with alcohol, and then digging in with the scissors and tweezers, as I´m peeking over and quickly turning green. Not a fun experience...I had to leave the room. And before I got to this country, I didn´t consider myself to be squeemish.

I missed our field trip to Guatemala City on Monday because I literally thought I was dying of the flu. Turns out I had some sort of 24 hour flu, with like 102 temp and the aches, but that´s all. I was fine by yesterday (Tues) afternoon. We spend all of our Tuesdays in Santa Lucía Milpas Altas, where the Peace Corps training center is. We´ve taken to playing Ultimate Frisbee in the late afternoon when we finish up with medical, tech, history/politics, etc sessions. Let me mention right now that I´ve had at least one shot each week since I´ve been here, if not more. I´m impressed with myself.

Tomorrow morning, we´re observing a charla about pregnancy, which should be pretty interesting. By next week, we´re giving them. Talk about learning by doing. Alright, I´m off to go play fútbol in the municipalidad. There are NO rules here in sports games. It´s awesome. You can throw all the elbows you want in soccer and basketball and no one says anything. Although, I have found it´s easier to play clean, unless you want your ass handed to you.

Ok, I´m off to work on my own charla for tomorrow, in English. I´m starting to miss the States, just in a sort of nostalgic way. Oh, and please write/send packages! I got my first mail from home yesterday, and it was fab. If you do mail a box or package, draw crosses and religious expressions (in Spanish) on it, because apparently customs officials don´t mess with anything related to Jesus. Score.

Meredith