Well folks, after nearly 4 months in Peru, I have finally had to open my Peace Corps issued med kit for a purpose other than to see what is inside of it. In fact, in the last 2 weeks, I´ve gone to it a total of three times. Don´t worry. I am perfectly fine. I just thought I would take this opportunity to share with you this bit of my tool kit.
So. First opening:
New years was a whole lot of fun. I stayed up until late with my family, my Peace Corps neighbor and the Dutch biologist and her family. We had an international event with Dutch ollenballen (this is basically fried dough with raisins and powdered sugar), American (but really Irish) potato-leek soup (thanks mom for e-mailing the recipe), Peruvian wine (which is way to sweet), escabeche de pollo (way too spicy) and of course panetón and chocolate. At midnight, we participated in all the customs: we ate 12 grapes for 12 wishes, we stuffed lentils into all of our pockets to have money in the next year and my host sister and I ran a lap around the house so that we would travel in this year. And then exhausted, we went to bed.
The next morning, I woke up with the stomachache of a champ. Apparently, such a mix of traditional foods means that I eat far more than my stomach can handle. I´m going to go ahead and say it was worth it though. I mean, it was all delicious. Nevermind the fact that I only ate soda crackers and drank tea for the three days after that. Totally worth it. And now you´re probably thinking: ok, what pills in her med kit did she take out to help her hurting tummy? Answer: none. Oh sure we have plenty for all sorts of stomach ailment, even up to Cipro for the occasional bacterial infection. But no, the reason I went to my med kit during my stomach problems was this: January 1st, we created our own custom and jumped in to Lake Cochapampa which is just on the east side of town. Actually, nothing happened here either. We were pretty cold in the water, but the intense near-equatorial sun warmed us up right as soon as we got out. And I felt so good and refreshed...aside from the stomachache.
The real reason for the med kit that day is this: the new mayor was swearing in and I had to be there but my shoes were giving me blisters so I put band-aids on my heels so I could attend the ceremony. After all of that craziness, it was just blisters.
OK so second opening: A friend of mine was complaining of a headache but since it was Sunday, none of the stores were open to sell a painkiller. So, having the loaded arsenal that I do, I gave him one of our non-aspirin painkillers and told him to drink a lot of water. Water is my go-to remedy. You saw that with the stomach issue. So anyway....
Third opening: This one is for real. As you probably know, I am a fan of the exercise and have been continuing this hobby here in site though there seem to be more challenges to doing it here than at home. For one thing, it´s a little chillier in the morninga. For another, there´s a whole lot less oxygen at 3550 meters above sea level. And then there´s the stares I get for exercising...in shorts! Outside. But now that they´re used to me going running and now that I have a couple of ladies who occasionally go with me, I´ve conquered that one. But here´s the other kicker: I live in the mountains. This means that very rarely is the path flat and rarer still is it paved. Gravel running is another complete challenge and can lead to....going to the med kit!
Because you see, I was running up to the first bridge and back a couple of days ago (about 6 km they tell me) and I tripped on an especially protrusive rock and fell. Hard. And on the wet gravel, falling hard means that there will be blood (movie reference intentional). Both palms and both knees were pretty scraped up and dirty. Still being more than a km from home, I picked myself up and kept going. I figured that the faster I ran home, the sooner I could clean up. I met a few of the farmers on their way to the fields on my way back and hoped they hadn´t seen my epic fall. I washed off in the sink and quickly rinsed (cold shower, yum) and then headed for the med kit. Band-aids wouldn´t work this time given the location of the injury so I hurried past the camo condoms and the bug repellant to the nice bottle of disinfectant and gauze and went to town. Cool thing about this disinfectant: it doesn´t burn. Hooray!
So I´m on the mend from that but the only thing that is suffering is my volleyball game. With bruised and scraped hands, there´s not a whole lot of spiking the ball that can happen.
What does this mean? It means I am being a lot more proactive in my work. I´ve been meeting people in their homes and conducting polls to see their living situations and their opinions. And it´s been really helpful, informative and only slightly heartbreaking. The holidays are over and it´s time to get to work. I´m feeling good about it. Without the parties of the holidays, I don´t think I would have the relationships I do now to begin to get down to business. After my meeting with the mayor today, we´ve decided that my summer school classes begin next week. Time to jump in.
Blessings.
