so a little over a year ago i started packing for something known as my peace corps adventure. i litterly had no idea what i should be packing as my out-of-country experiences had been limited to caribbean beachs and canada. so packing for a 2 year journey through a developing country in central america i literally had no idea as to how the packing should go. plus i was working under the 80lb limit given to me by peace corps.
anyway, like most new pc trainees i packed a bunch of useless stuff, not enough clothes, and a lot of stuff that i could have bought in nicaragua anyway.
in the past year i've aquirred more useless stuff ( i don't even know where it all has come from), lots of awesome free stuff (hello stove and table donated by el pueblo de japon), and collected a ton of recycled materials that one day i promise to do something with. really.
so returning from my medevac is kind of like a second chance at packing. which is fun. because now i'm smart. know what i want. know what i can by on my salary. know what i'll be craving. and know what i can share with my nica friends, my pc friends and use in the schools. so here are some of the random things i'm bringing back (and that i'm extremely excited about.)
1) i've washed all my clothes like 1000 times. seriously. i will never complain about doing laundry again as long as it is with a washer and dryer. my laundry smells AMAZING. like amazing amazing. so yes..everything has been washed and is ready to go back to being washed on my pila at like 4am. and i'm bringing back more clothes that i discovered in my house that would be perfect for nicaragua and i don't really care that they will look terrible in a year. but at least for the next few months i will have new clothes to wear!
2) halloween candy. best time ever to buy candy. its also trick or treat tonight here in the states so i of course have to share some with the little kiddes but the rest is going back with me. :)
3) mardi gras beads..yes. i'll use them in school or maybe i'll just have to plan a mardi gras party. either way..i'm cool with it.
4) cake mix. it was a dollar a box. that stuff is at least 60 or 70 cords. and i like cake. plus now i can make someone a cake and they will be amazed.
5) toothbrushes because pc doesn't provide them..which is cool. my family has a collected 100s of toothbrushes so i took a bunch to use over the next year..and now that i think about it maybe i should take some more and give those out as prizes in school too. i mean come on..who wants a teacher who gives you candy. toothbrushes are way cooler. and even cooler porque son de los estados.
yup. anyway. tomorrow i'll be back in my site with a delicious quesillo or maybe just gallo pinto and maduros. but at the very least i'll be have a butterfinger for dessert. :) yum!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
nicaragua hospitals &&& the med evac.....
well..its been a while since i updated and thats mostly because i spent the last month dying. or mostly dying. haha. kidding...kind of. :)
anyway, what was supposed to be SUPER SEPTEMBER..actually turned into SUPER OUT-OF-SITE/SICK SEPTEMBER. litterly. i've now have been out-of-site for 6 and 1/2 weeks. 5 weeks in Managua (with a 1 day trip back to the LPC) and now its been a week and a half in the states on a med evac. this could possibly be a record. maybe. not that i want it to be in the record books.
so why might you ask? well..one word. asthma. followed by a bunch of other words. rainy season. pnuemonia. hospital. &&& whooping cough. long story short...the rainy season got to my lungs.
now the long story.
the beginning of september brought about a bunch of celebrations including erin's brithday and our 1 year in country celebration (woo..nica 51!). anyway for erin's birthday, i went up to her site to help her celebrate with her town (who by the way are totally AWESOME!). she lives in a very small community and several of the woman in the town decided to throw a birthday party and it was a PARTY! they cooked a huge dinner, decorated up the house and of course brought out the finest nica party tunes they could find. so we danced the night away (till 4am..haha..or midnight!). well erin has a really cute cat named noche who i also happen to be allergic too...now in nicaragua, the houses are very open and i haven't had any real problems with my allergies (point..my host fam had 2 dogs and i never had issues with them...inspite of being allergic). anyway, my my asthma problems started and since it was the middle of the night there was nothing i could do till morning.
the next morning i returned to site still not feeling too well and have trouble breathing. yet in my brillant, devoted PC volunteer mind, i still went to school with full intentions of teaching..woo! however, as soon as i arrived at school barely being able to breathe, my teacher told me to go home and drink some limon (lime) for my cough. :) so instead i returned home with full plans to nebulize only to discover that my nebulizer was in fact full of mold. gross! so i called PC to see what i should do a litterly as soon as the words asthma came out of my mouth they were directing me to come to managua to get treated. if only i had known.....
before leaving the lpc, my neighbors came over to inquire also about my cough and then reminded me that i should not just drink limon but also add some miel (honey) to it and that of course i need to cover up my chest because its cold. this is just one thing i love about nicaragua, how everyone really looks out for one another. yay neighbors! :) so i headed to managua, received my meds and then rested all weekend with a minor exception for the the incredible breakfast buffet we had to celebrate our 1 year in country. i litterly took a picture of the bill because it came out to over 8000 cordobas..which is about $400 (for the entire group!)..but it was totally worth every cord we spent!
anway, so resting. lots of it..but i still wasn't getting any better and so PC decided it would be best to have me admitted to the hospital in managua for treatment. now i had only been in the hospital once before..when i had appendicitis in toledo during college. i was only in for 2 days and i was pretty drugged most of the time so i don't really remember much. but what i do know is that the hospital in managua is WAY nicer than the hospital i was in in toledo. i was seriously impressed, the nurses were super nice (although very worried that i wouldn't know any spanish!) and i had a private room with pull-out couch. yup! well after being hospitalized for 2 days they discovered that i had pnuemonia which then extended my hospitalization for a whole lot longer so that i could be treated with IV anit-biotics. sadly..this whole fiasco happened during my town's fiestas patronals :( so sad. i wanted to cry. i also wanted to cry because of my iv. ouch!
thankfully, i was discharged (dado de alta..new word i learned in spanish!) just in time for nicaraguan independence day and to join my most favorite person in the world in our hotel room! basically over the next 2 weeks my life consisted of coughing, nebulizing, coughing, visiting various doctors, coughing, getting random advice about said cough (like to drink an entire bottle of caballito..a very cheap liquor), coughing, nebulizing and watching an insane amount of tv and of course coughing.
well all that coughing lead me to be re-admitted to the hospital. which then lead all the nurses from my first hospital stay to joke around with me and say that i missed them and thats why i had returned. haha..of course! well during hospital stay number 2 it was determined that i probably had whooping cough (whoop!), that i would continue coughing for up to 3 months, and that the nica weather wasn't doing any favors to my lungs. thankfully, at the same time they figured this out, PC Washington figured out it might be best for me to return to the states for a bit to rest, get evaluated by my doctor at home, and well miss out the rest of the nicaraguan rainy season.
so i'm home. its nice and i'm feeling better. but i miss nicaragua. although its been nice to watch hours of ridiculous tv and to eat whatever i want, its hard becuase i have no real purpose in the states besides getting better. i miss quesillo and my house. i miss my best friends who love the jonas brothers and my host family (specially my host brother!) and my students and teachers and my counterpart. and i even miss my darn gardens. and of course i miss everyone in PC. so i can't wait to get back and see everyone and re-start all my projects yet again..but at least i'll be productive, have new motivation, and will be totally ready to rock out my SECOND year of service!! woo!!!
so yeah..lungs. woo!
anyway, what was supposed to be SUPER SEPTEMBER..actually turned into SUPER OUT-OF-SITE/SICK SEPTEMBER. litterly. i've now have been out-of-site for 6 and 1/2 weeks. 5 weeks in Managua (with a 1 day trip back to the LPC) and now its been a week and a half in the states on a med evac. this could possibly be a record. maybe. not that i want it to be in the record books.
so why might you ask? well..one word. asthma. followed by a bunch of other words. rainy season. pnuemonia. hospital. &&& whooping cough. long story short...the rainy season got to my lungs.
now the long story.
the beginning of september brought about a bunch of celebrations including erin's brithday and our 1 year in country celebration (woo..nica 51!). anyway for erin's birthday, i went up to her site to help her celebrate with her town (who by the way are totally AWESOME!). she lives in a very small community and several of the woman in the town decided to throw a birthday party and it was a PARTY! they cooked a huge dinner, decorated up the house and of course brought out the finest nica party tunes they could find. so we danced the night away (till 4am..haha..or midnight!). well erin has a really cute cat named noche who i also happen to be allergic too...now in nicaragua, the houses are very open and i haven't had any real problems with my allergies (point..my host fam had 2 dogs and i never had issues with them...inspite of being allergic). anyway, my my asthma problems started and since it was the middle of the night there was nothing i could do till morning.
the next morning i returned to site still not feeling too well and have trouble breathing. yet in my brillant, devoted PC volunteer mind, i still went to school with full intentions of teaching..woo! however, as soon as i arrived at school barely being able to breathe, my teacher told me to go home and drink some limon (lime) for my cough. :) so instead i returned home with full plans to nebulize only to discover that my nebulizer was in fact full of mold. gross! so i called PC to see what i should do a litterly as soon as the words asthma came out of my mouth they were directing me to come to managua to get treated. if only i had known.....
before leaving the lpc, my neighbors came over to inquire also about my cough and then reminded me that i should not just drink limon but also add some miel (honey) to it and that of course i need to cover up my chest because its cold. this is just one thing i love about nicaragua, how everyone really looks out for one another. yay neighbors! :) so i headed to managua, received my meds and then rested all weekend with a minor exception for the the incredible breakfast buffet we had to celebrate our 1 year in country. i litterly took a picture of the bill because it came out to over 8000 cordobas..which is about $400 (for the entire group!)..but it was totally worth every cord we spent!
anway, so resting. lots of it..but i still wasn't getting any better and so PC decided it would be best to have me admitted to the hospital in managua for treatment. now i had only been in the hospital once before..when i had appendicitis in toledo during college. i was only in for 2 days and i was pretty drugged most of the time so i don't really remember much. but what i do know is that the hospital in managua is WAY nicer than the hospital i was in in toledo. i was seriously impressed, the nurses were super nice (although very worried that i wouldn't know any spanish!) and i had a private room with pull-out couch. yup! well after being hospitalized for 2 days they discovered that i had pnuemonia which then extended my hospitalization for a whole lot longer so that i could be treated with IV anit-biotics. sadly..this whole fiasco happened during my town's fiestas patronals :( so sad. i wanted to cry. i also wanted to cry because of my iv. ouch!
thankfully, i was discharged (dado de alta..new word i learned in spanish!) just in time for nicaraguan independence day and to join my most favorite person in the world in our hotel room! basically over the next 2 weeks my life consisted of coughing, nebulizing, coughing, visiting various doctors, coughing, getting random advice about said cough (like to drink an entire bottle of caballito..a very cheap liquor), coughing, nebulizing and watching an insane amount of tv and of course coughing.
well all that coughing lead me to be re-admitted to the hospital. which then lead all the nurses from my first hospital stay to joke around with me and say that i missed them and thats why i had returned. haha..of course! well during hospital stay number 2 it was determined that i probably had whooping cough (whoop!), that i would continue coughing for up to 3 months, and that the nica weather wasn't doing any favors to my lungs. thankfully, at the same time they figured this out, PC Washington figured out it might be best for me to return to the states for a bit to rest, get evaluated by my doctor at home, and well miss out the rest of the nicaraguan rainy season.
so i'm home. its nice and i'm feeling better. but i miss nicaragua. although its been nice to watch hours of ridiculous tv and to eat whatever i want, its hard becuase i have no real purpose in the states besides getting better. i miss quesillo and my house. i miss my best friends who love the jonas brothers and my host family (specially my host brother!) and my students and teachers and my counterpart. and i even miss my darn gardens. and of course i miss everyone in PC. so i can't wait to get back and see everyone and re-start all my projects yet again..but at least i'll be productive, have new motivation, and will be totally ready to rock out my SECOND year of service!! woo!!!
so yeah..lungs. woo!
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