5/23/10
Is this really my life?

The last week of my life feels like a crazy blur. I have been trying to sit down and journal or write this blog and I just keep feeling like I can’t express the way I am feeling. Even just seeing one English speaker is kind of intense; when I get into bank in Ambato I always feel like I can’t talk fast enough and our conversations jump from topic to topic at lightning speed. You can’t even imagine what it’s like to show up and have the 34 people you know so well and spent so much time with, reunited after 4 months of living at post. It was overwhelming, to say the least, and I have had contact with other volunteers during that time. Some of my stage has literally not seen another volunteer since we parted after swearing-in. We kept commenting on how we couldn’t believe how wonderful it was to have friends, to laugh until your stomach hurts and to hug and cuddle up with the people you are closest to.

The first week of training our counterparts, aka the people that you are working closest with in your village (or not, if you didn’t chose them), were here to participate in training. I was kind of worried about it being awkward, mostly because I brought Lucette, my closest friend, but didn’t want her to feel excluded because all I really wanted to do when I got to training was hang out with my friends. It was a little bit silly for me to be worried about it though; Lucette was in her element. She was joking and talking to all of the counterparts and basically being the center of attention, in their circle, the whole week. It was great. The training itself wasn’t that beneficial to her, since she already came to one training and is super mahay on American culture. But other volunteers’ counterparts really learned a lot about what Peace Corps actually is and what they can do to help their volunteer work more efficiently in the community. Lucette also served as a good resource for other counterparts, in the sense that she shared her previous experiences with Peace Corps and explained why volunteers act the way they do. I was really dreading having them there for the week, but looking back on it I think it was a good program. The last night they were here we had a big dance party with them and the staff, which was really fun. They tended to sit down when we switched back to American music from the Gasy songs, but they had a lot of fun and I think it was a really good bonding experience for most of the volunteers and their counterparts.



5/26/10
So it’s time an update on the parasy situation. I discovered that I had not one, but two more parasy in my foot upon arriving to Mantasoa. The last one must have been there for a while, because while the other ones seemed like nothing, this one was disgusting. It was deep and had worked its way under my toenail. Further after you dig the parasy and eggs out of your foot, the hole that it was living in turns black for approximately a month until it heals. My toe looks disgusting. I took a picture and maybe one day I’ll show it to you all.

Next, Mantasoa is a totally different climate than site, ie wet and cold. Not only have we been huddled in sweatshirts and jeans all week and passing around a cold, but we’ve also managed to pass around a skin fungus. Haha I can’t believe I’m even writing this. It’s not a gross one, but it’s a fungus that eats your skin pigment so it shows up where you have tan skin as little white spots. It clears up after a couple weeks of using athletes foot cream. I’m still not sure if I have it, but I’ve been using the cream anyway, since everyone else has it. You may wonder how we manage to trade this skin fungus? Well, after 4 months at site we are all more than a little affection starved. When faced with the situation of having to share two, 2 person rooms; Katie, Sara, Chantal and I moved all 4 beds into one small room and named it the ‘orphanage.’ You literally have to climb over beds to get to the ones on the far side of the room. We disassembled it today because we are all leaving and it was kind of sad. Our group sessions usually consist of 6 people piling onto one 3 person couch and there are hugs all around. We love each other. One time while piled all on one couch, we looked at each other and noted, ‘this is probably why we all have fungus,’ but not even fungus can make us want to separate right now.