The Fairy

June 25 2009, Thursday

So the fairy has arrived…what fairy you might ask…the diarrhea fairy that goes around and visits every Peace Corps Trainee (PCT) without fail. As our medical doctor told us during one of the health lectures, "diarrhea… well you’ll just have it so that’s all there is really to say". It’s not so much a question of if you will get sick while you are here, it is more so a question as to when you will get sick. Lucky for me right now, it isn’t unbearable, but it is definitely here.

We took the bus today from Cayambe up to La Chimba. And I swear, it is just about the worse bus ride I have been on in my life which last about an hour and a half. This was the second time I have taken this trip, and all of the pot holes where still there. On the bright side, it is a really beautiful country side that you get to see on the way up the mountain. It wasn’t too bad at first though because I was feeling ok at that point (and I was standing up so I had to use my whole body from falling all around). And then a seat opened up and I sat down. That’s when the fairy came to visit and I still had about 30 minutes left in the trip. And let me tell you that was just about the longest 30 minutes in my life. And all I kept thinking was, yo puedo, yo puedo (I can, I can) in reference to not pooping in my pants. Thank goodness, I was able to hold it all in until we got back to La Chimba. However, I went into the bathroom at the Centro where we have classes in La Chimba and of course there was not toilet paper. Now thankfully I had five other people who were at the place with me in the room across the way so I texted them with my phone explaining my situation. Thankfully they came through with just enough toilet paper for me to make it by. Needless to say, the fairy visited me again about four hours later and I have this suspicion that it might just be here tomorrow morning as well. On the bright side, I have enough drugs in my medical kit that I should find something that will work. Tonight I took Diphen and Bismuth tabs which will hopefully do the trick.

Besides that, my sun burn is coming in nicely from the soccer game that I went to last weekend. I think I started to try and peel a couple of places a little early because the skin that was underneath was RED and really stung. Not to mention, that it just had all this gooey stuff on it that hardened again to protect the red skin. So those places were the very top of my forehead and my right ear. And let me tell you that I am now paying for that decision. However, the rest of my sun burn is coming along nicely on my face, ears, hands, and neck. The hands don’t really hurt at all, although they look really bad, my neck really hurt yesterday but today is much better, my one ear really hurts while the other is okay, and my face the nose is a little sensitive and the top of my forehead is a no touch zone. Either way, it is coming along and trying to heal which is the good part.

So today we had two more vaccination shots…it’s like a gift that just keeps on giving and coming back to you. I had the second of my rabies shots in my left arm (I think it’s a serious of 3, so we’ve got one more to go now) and the other one was in my right arm and was for Typhoid. The shots themselves didn’t really hurt, but the Typhoid shot definitely ached afterwards for most people. The other vaccinations that we have had I recovered fine from, so I just have to be sure to not sleep on either of my arms tonight and I think that I should be fine again. But that Typhoid one was definitely something fierce.

The classes that I have throughout the week are a combination of different types of lectures including, safety and security lectures, PC policy lectures, health lectures, technical classes, language classes and maybe a couple of other things thrown in there. The technical classes and the language classes are broken down into smaller groups (mine are about 13 people for the tech class and 5 for the language). The rest of the lectures are all together with all 45 of us in Ayorra.

So where is Ayorra one might ask? That is the fun part; it is about a forty minute walk from where I live followed by a 20 minute bus ride from Olmedo. And if you can do math and know time that means that in total my commute is about an hour. So far all of our sessions have been in Ayorra, so it has made for some long days. But at the same time, I guess at least I can say that I get my exercise every day.

And today we got a lot of exercise because we walked to Olmedo like normal to take the bus, and then we took the bus to Ayorra for our morning vaccinations. Then we got on a bus after that which took us to Cayambe and we must have walked around Cayambe for about 2 hours…partly because Pablo, our , got lost and had us walk the wrong way for about an hour. So to repay us for his mistake, he paid for all of us to take the bus back to the center of Cayabme so we could walk the correct way. Next was our bus ride where I almost pooped my pants back up to Cayambe. We then had our afternoon language class and afterwards we decided that we wanted to go to Olmedo for the internet café and for some coffees for those of us who like them. So that was another 20 minutes of walking followed by 40 minutes back home. All in all, a lot of walking today, sore arms from the vaccinations, a sick stomach from the latter half of the day, and a sore leg. Which I forgot to tell you about! I think it was two days ago now I tried to walk from my room to the bathroom without a flashlight…wrong idea. I slammed by leg right into a piece of rebar that is what the stairs are made with. Needless to say, the piece of rebar won and my leg lost with a nice scrap and bruise. So what this all means…my body is sore! But that’s what the medicine is for.

I finally got to talk to my mom and dad today which made me very happy. Always nice to hear from the people at home. Not having communication like I am used to is definitely going to take some adjusting. But I’ll adjust just like I am having to for everything (definitely a part of the experience)!

A little disclaimer I would like to put in here. I definitely love it here in Ecuador. The culture and atmosphere, not to mention topography, is awesome. We definitely were lucky to be chosen for this program. And as far for the language, I think that I have come to a conclusion for now. It is definitely one of, if not the most, frustrating things that I have ever had to deal with in my life. Not being able to express yourself and not understanding others is very hard. But I have to believe that over the time and training my language skills will get better and better over the two years of service as well. Learning a language is a process and it’s not practical to think that you can just learn to speak a language in one day…even though I would like to! Poco a poco…little by little. That is the saying here. And even though I get really frustrated with the language, I know that little by little I will get it and I will improve. Now the last step for me, is to simply accept that fact (easier said than done, let me tell you)!

I think that my brain is starting to go and it is getting a little later (10pm is now LATE for me folks) so I think I better get heading to bed. Tomorrow we get to go on our Cultural Trip which should be really interesting and fun since we are going to an Afro-Ecuadorian community which is about two and a half hours from here and the weather should be with a high of 80!!!! The sad part is, we have to be in Cayambe park at 730 in the morning which means that we have to leave the center of town at 6am which means I get to wake up tomorrow at 5am. What luck? I’m sure it will be worth it though. Until later folks.

P.S. Best thing about today by far…well I guess in a close second with talking to my parents…I learned that there IS a hot water switch up in the piping and if I turn that knob I get warm water for my shower…you read right people, a WARM shower (after a week of cold ones…it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G).