Cock-A-Doodle-Don’t (2006.08.24)

Well, it’s 5:53 am and as I was lying here in bed wondering why on earth roosters feel the need to crow more than once or twice or why they need to start crowing at 3am, I figured I may as well blog since I’m awake. I’ve been here in Hardeman just about three weeks, and just as I imagined they would, things are getting progressively better. I am understanding the fast, mumbly campo Spanish more and more, I’m meeting more people and work is starting to pick up a bit. I went down to visit another volunteer who is an hour south of me and realized I have absolutely no room to complain. His work partner decided to quit on him, he doesn’t really have a host family, his room is nothing but a small concrete floor and he has done NOTHING every day except read all of his books. It got so bad that he even read through all the Peace Corps rulebooks and handbooks they gave us, which, if you saw them, would realize that meant he was REALLY desperate. So, after spending a little time down there, I realized that I was way beyond what he was going through. The few complaints I did have seemed like peanuts. As crappy as it is for him, it made me feel a lot better about my situation. I felt bad bringing him up to see my place, but it did give him something to do that day.

I haven’t met a ton of people yet, but the few I have met have warmed up to me nicely. There is a guy named Kilmer (he introduced himself as Val Kilmer) who is quite a hoot to talk with. He loves speaking “English” to me, although his vocab is limited mostly to greetings and swear words. If you’ve never heard a South American say cuss words in English, I feel sorry for you…it makes me laugh beyond belief. This guy Kilmer is self absorbed to the point of comedy, always talking about how beautiful he is and such. I’ve gotten in with the doctor at the health post in town as well, a very friendly guy who is very supportive and interested in what I’m doing. He set up a meeting with the town health council so he could introduce me to them, since I will be doing some health education here, he thought it would be a good idea to collaborate. He also let me tag along with a group of health workers on Tuesday when they went out to surrounding communities (three hours from the middle of nowhere) in their ambulance (converted early 90s Toyota 4x4). They were giving vaccinations to kids and I myself got to weigh the kids using this sling-type thing that hung from a spring scale. For whatever reason, the kids would always scream and cry when they had to be weighed, but hardly any made a peep when they had to get shots, which baffled me. I couldn’t even watch them get shots I hate needles so much. Perhaps they were just afraid of the bearded gringo that was holding the scale, I don’t know. It was good to get out of town for a day and see how folks live way, WAY out there, although I did manage to get sick from the food I ate. It only lasted about 12 hours, which is about as good as you can ask for from food poisoning I’d say. It was quite an experience vomiting out the window of an ambulance on this dark dusty bumpy road and one I won’t soon forget. That’s what I get for cleaning my plate I guess.

Most of my days are spent in my office (really just a corner of a room), reading over things from training, coming up with development plans for programs and trying to put all the pieces together. There is a lot to be done here, and it’s tricky trying to manage it all at once. Although, I did manage to get my hands on a dry-erase board (just like at home!) so I’ve got it all written up there to help me organize it. We have a lot of support from outside organizations and a lot of strong institutions in our community, so it’s a challenge putting it all together, trying to utilize everything that’s at my disposal. Then there are always the random tasks that are going on around the office. For example, the other day, the high winds knocked the speaker wires off of the PA system that is up on our water tank for town announcements. Well, Danny the plumber doesn’t like climbing the tower because he gets scared, so I got nominated to do it. I jumped at the opportunity to do some climbing, and besides, the ladder was enclosed so it wasn’t all that scary, even though I wasn’t tied into a harness with Jed Johnson on the other end of the rope, barking at me to keep going. The speakers were about 20 meters up, and once I got up there I had to cut and re-strip the wires (thank you, Leatherman) and plug the speakers back in. Success! It was a nice little break from sitting at my desk, albeit a little scary.

Up High On The Tower...Woo Hoo!

Most of my evenings are spent reading books, writing letters, journaling or playing guitar. Fairly uneventful, really. I’m usually asleep by 10 or 10:30, which is probably why it’s tough to sleep past 6am (plus the roosters don’t help). My host family and I are getting more and more used to each other, which is definitely a plus. I’m becoming less and less self-conscious about doing things on my own around the house (like making my own food or something) and it is becoming easier to ask about different things. I know that might sound funny but you never know what people are going to think when you ask them seemingly normal questions. We make each other laugh a lot, which is definitely a life saver. Me with my kooky Spanish and them with their seemingly non-sensical ideas about random things. For example, in Bolivia, sitting on a hot surface will give you a stomach ache. Or when you yawn, you’re either hungry or sick, but not tired. My favorite is that eating watermelon gives you diarrhea, but eating fried cheese does not. We have a TV here, although I don’t watch it too often. The Simpsons are on every night, and I’ve caught a few episodes here and there. It’s not quite as funny in Spanish, but it has its moments…mostly stuff that I have memorized and I know what they are saying in English. Then on Sunday nights they play movies, and this past week E.T. was on, and I laughed out loud when he said, “E.T. llama casa! E.T. llama casa!” which loosely translates to “E.T. phone home!” They say watching T.V. in Spanish (as well as reading books and newspapers) is a great way to improve your skills. We’ll see.

These first three months in site are supposed to be the toughest of our whole service, and it’s easy to see why. At this point, it’s much more appealing to stay in my room reading than venturing out into the unknown and walking around town. I find myself thinking a lot about my trip back home in May, which I suppose is understandable but I really need to buckle down and focus on what I’m doing here. I have less and less of the “What on earth am I doing here?” thoughts and an occasional phone call from a friend or my parents allows me a good outlet. There will come a time when I can’t walk around town without being greeted by everyone I see, but I can’t expect that right away. I’ve got to do something first. Next week we have a health council coming in for a talk on hygiene and hand washing, and I’m supposed to manage the group of facilitators they put together, so I suppose that’s my first opportunity. I hope to start doing some well drilling next month with the group of people that invented the technology in order to get some more training and become an expert. Once the well drilling gets underway, I might even get too busy to blog, who knows.

I’m headed into the city this weekend to get money and see my pals from training. We are allowed up to 5 days a month to go to the city to do things and buy things we just can’t get in our sites, and also because they understand that we need a break from the campo lifestyle every once in a while. I’m hoping a few packages I’m waiting on will be there, but the Bolivian postal service is not what you’d call “reliable.” It’s ok, I’ll settle for a few good emails and phone calls. Well, it’s about time for coffee and bread, the usual breakfast. Have a nice Thursday.