viernes, 7 de diciembre de 2007

food poisoning...

i guess it´s bound to hit when moving to any foreign country, but prior to wednesday i had been spared. the day started out with a "taller" on malnutrition. we were training community members on how to weigh and measure children under the age of two using an infantometro.

reading the scales proved to be understandably difficult for many of the participants, many of whom are iliterate or have a basic reading level. i worked with a woman named aurelia. she struggled with the scales, but i think she got it in the end (keeping my fingers crossed).

for lunch we headed to comedor rosalinda, and i got the caldo served with tomatillos. caldo basically is soup with a watery broth, usually cooked with meat and veggies (i gotta just remove the meat... it´s not always easy being a vegetarian in guatemala).

felt a little funny afterward, but my reaction did not start until later that night. if you´ve ever had food poisoning you understand. basically i spent about twentyfour hours over the toilet wanting to die. i felt pathetic and alone. i called up my mom just for sympathy points. i basically just needed someone else to feel sorry for me so that i wasn´t only feeling sorry for myself.

i´ll spare you all of the graphic details of the sickness. more difficult was just struggling with being sick, and not having anyone to take care of me. this is all part of the experience here. many volunteers told us prior to swearing in that dealing with the solitude and loneliness is the most difficult part. i have been in site so short that i havent yet developed a system of support that i can go to when i am struggling (or pissing out of my ass).

luckily i have a pretty awesome sitemate and she brought me some pan frances. i curled up on my mattress on the floor and slept it off best that i could.

too tall to play...

my friend dan, another PCV, sent me a text the other night asking if i would like to play in our towns basketball tournament. at first visions ran through my mind of my embarrassing performances on the basketball as a (very) uncoordinated adolescent. still, i thought, this may be a good opportunity to meet some new people.

i showed up at the court tuesday afternoon promptly at 3:30 ready to play. the other women showed up one by one. i approached the guy who appeared to be in charge and asked if i could be possibly placed on a team. he kinda mumbled something under his breath and told me to wait a few. i took a seat in the cement bleachers and watched the women gather and put on their uniforms. a few minuntes later someone came over to break me the bad news... i am too tall to play basketball, and i{m not on the list.

prior to this i saw my height being the only advantage i actually have on the court. apart from that i am an unaggressive, uncoordinated mess, still not completely sure what to do with my own limbs at times. ive gotten used to towering above pretty much every "chapin" (guatemalan) i meet and most of the time i just forget about my height.

i would have been sad about the news, but more than anything i just thought it was funny.... (hopefully theyll find a space for me on a team next season:-)