Sheesh! Just this blog title makes it seem as if a lot has been going on. And it has!
Okay first things first: Thank you for all your concern about my health. I am recovering from a rather nasty parasite (some mean amoeba that got into my intestines and gave me stomach pain for weeks). Well, after many a test and trip to the doctor I am on a heavy-duty amebecide and antibiotic that has already stopped most of the painful symptoms. So, here’s to hoping that my obligatory Peace Corps-third-world-country illness is out of the way.
Second: As of today we have officially lasted 7 months in Guyana! Woot woot! Our projects are underway and our spirits are high. Tim has been plugging away at writing a manual/teaching guide that focuses on classroom management and literacy strategies. Once he gets input from his counterparts he hopes to get this teaching aide out to teachers in Region 10 and lead some professional development sessions to encourage more interactive learning and group work in classrooms. I have been hard at work with the Youth Friendly Center at my health center, organizing events and getting to know some really cool young ladies. We have had some great discussions about reproductive health, decision-making and self esteem. I am also working on getting another program up and running to get nurses involved with teaching younger kids about protecting and respecting their bodies to help stop domestic violence and abuse at a young age. We have a conference at the end of this month with our counterparts where we will really be focusing on collaboration in our program design and development. It should be a great chance to build closer working relationships with coworkers and highlight the goal of sustainability in our projects.
But our most exciting new recent event was our trip to Barbados! We took a 4-night vacation with Sara and another PCV, Princess to meet up with Tim’s cousin Joey and two of his friends Scott and Diaz in Barbados. It was a much needed escape away from Peace Corps life and was so much fun! We truly had some fantastic experiences; snorkeling at sunken ships and with sea turtles, swimming in the sparkling Caribbean sea, eating great food, dancing, relaxing in our in suite hot tub, exploring sea caves and wandering the island. Other than experiences that would be considered extraordinary in any vacation, our trip was made even more fantastic by the simple fact that EVERYTHING seemed extraordinary! I mean, we had hot showers, a washing machine, real butter on toast that came out of a toaster, we found a coffee shop that served espresso, and an ice cream parlor like Coldstone, we had nachos and slept without a mosquito net in air conditioning. These are things that I think we would have taken for granted if we came straight from the States, but since we don’t have these things in our life as PCVs our trip really seemed like the best vacation ever!
I think Tim will blog more about our vacation soon but I wanted to get the word out that we are well and happy. We are refreshed and rejuvenated (probably by all that coffee…) and ready to work hard on our projects for another 7 months, until our next refreshing trip: home to the States for Tim’s 30th Birthday in April 2011.
Lots of love to all!
-C
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