Surprisingly

6-16-11

Surprisingly...

I really am surprising myself the more that I am here. I mean all the yucko things that I have had to do and seen really haven’t phased me the way I once thought.  So the bathroom situation in my compound is... kinda sick. There are these holes in the ground called latrines, where people do their business. There are no lids or covers so cockroaches and mosquitoes pretty much own this area. It gets sicker. So everyone in the compound uses this hole, 20+ people. Imagine the smell right? K so this area, ya it is also the shower zone. I’m still getting used to that :)

Next. My twin bed has a Peace Corps given thick green mosquito net over it. The other night I heard rustling, like I have been the past couple of nights, and blamed it on the malaria medicine, ‘metho dream’ is what PCV’s are calling it, but I was sure that I heard something in my room. So, I reached for my phone flashlight and as I shone it towards the celling, it caught 6 gleaming eyes. Rats. They were clinging to my net. One on the top and two on the sides. When they saw the light they scattered. One was trapped between my net and the wall and was trying to climb under the net, which he’d then be in my bed with me. I sat up, pulled my legs in and yes, I admit, had a bit of a freakout moment. I called Tammie, she calmed me down and I went back to bed, after I made sure my net was tucked in really tight. 

The pile of dead cockroaches in front of my door every morning, no longer grosses me out, but ensures my want of getting a cat as soon as I get to site. 

I had an interview with a man named Andrew, as to where I would ‘like’ to be placed and where I will be most useful, we should all be finding out around week 4, I am stoked!

It is really weird not looking in a mirror everyday. I can’t say I have forgotten what I look like, but it is certainly different not owning a mirror. I joke with Tammie that, “at least we know people hang out with us for more than just our good looks,” cause the greasy hair, no make-up, tired, sweaty ‘look’ cannot be super attractive.