Its dark and late and I'm sitting in my hammock swinging back and forth to the rhythm of loud zacaida bugs. I've been putting off writing a blog post for some time now and as time goes, so does my desire to write them. Part of the problem is that I've been pretty sick the last month and this pretty much drains whatever energy I have after the heat has taken its toll on me. I had giardia and Ascaris worms last week at the same time and realized there was something wrong when trying to give computer class I almost fell over.
I've become desperate in my pursuit to stay healthy and due to a recent declaration by the medical officer saying that if I get sick one more time in my site I'm going to get moved, I have been more diligent in trying not to get sick. I've resorted to boiling all the water I use to drink and make food, putting chlorine in the tank of water that I use to bath myself, not eating any food given to me from anyone in my community. I also have to wear shoes everywhere for now on apparently because some parasites can in through my feet.
The community and the artisan group are doing great. They work a lot and they are more organized than some American organizations I've seen. I'm pretty confident in taking them to the next level which is looking for a grant to get chocolate making machinery. The machine is from a company called cacoatown.com and the solar panel needed to run it all should be coming from Panama City. 11K in all should do it. Now I just have to find the money.
I've started to get a little nervous for a couple reasons. First, there is only two months left for the me and the girl that I have been dating and I'm not sure how it is going to be without her here. We will have been dating for about half a year which is pretty significant and going through all this with someone else always creates a bond that is hard to match. I'm not looking forward to the day she heads back home and I stay here. It seems cruel that the thing that brought us together is now pulling us apart. The other thing is visiting home. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Not because I will be the best man at my best friend's wedding or the fact that I haven't seen any of my friends and family for a year now. I'm more nervous because of the sheer number of people I will be thrown into and craziness that is California. It will be shocking for sure but having the saving grace mentality that I will be returning to my hammock and dark jungle will be good for sure.
Speaking of dark jungle. I got a solar panel. A gringo on the island was selling it for pretty cheap and I could not resist. After buying an equally expensive battery for the system, my neighbor, Salomon and I set it up. Seems to work great to charge my iphone and computer which will be handy as I'm starting to write this grant and will need the power.
There is not much else going on. I did start working on putting in more catchment systems in community and they should be completed within a month or so once I can get the tanks here. We had another doctor group come in and it went pretty smooth. A women needed money to get the lesch meniasis shots for her kid so I worked out a deal with the artisan group to give her some money from our emergency fund to send her. Good to see the system working. It has been raining a lot more lately and everything I have is moldy. I will be spending a good part of the day tomorrow washing my clothes and sheets in the river. On second thought, I might actually pay my neighbor to do it...
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