A million reasons not to write tonight...

...yet I'm doing it anyway! As anyone who truly knows me can attest to, the quickest way to get me to do something that I don't feel like doing is assign me an even WORSE task to do. Suddenly the first one absolutely needs to get completed before I can even think THINK about the next task. So here I am with a huge project due tomorrow and what am I doing? I'm finally finding time to update my blog! It's something that's long overdue; I felt myself creeping into that space where it would soon be silly to backtrack and talk about all the mundane things that had happened in the last ten days (ten days doesn't seem to long but in NPH time a LOT can happen. Time seriously flies here). To make this a little more manageable I'll probably break it into a few different posts. First let me tell you how things have been going in a general sense. Everything here has been fine. My language ebbs and flows. I thought it was me being crazy until I started hearing the other volunteers mention it too, but there are definitely days that I can speak better Spanish (not surprisingly, I tend to be much worse on Mondays after a weekend of "cheating" with English, Fridays in general are better). I feel like I have a solid handle on basic conversation now, I don't have to put much thought into asking someone how their day was or what their plans are for the weekend. Like most people who learn Spanish (and maybe second languages in general?) I had to learn to start ignoring words I didn't know and listen to the rest of the sentence to try to get an idea of what the person is trying to say. A lot of times when I answer people's questions I actually have no clue if I'm responding the right way, it's all guess work. In general I'm doing well though. The hardest times for me are when I'm at work because I'm constantly running up against vocabulary I'm not familiar with, and working in the medical field it's important to understand EVERY word that's coming through. I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves at work so the other nurses there think my Spanish is really basic. They're patient though and constantly tell me that in another few months things will be a lot easier.

I have to say, learning a new language is completely exhausting. You have to be focused at all times, it's like concentrating on homework all day long, by the evening I'm ready to pass out. I've been going to bed every night by 9:30, 10 at the latest and sleeping really heavy until 7. I'm looking forward to getting to the point where I can actually go out for a beer with the other volunteers without daydreaming of my bedroom.

I keep getting hit by how liberating it is to speak another language. All the people that I've met here already, staff and volunteers alike, would have remained strangers to me if we didn't have Spanish in common. The other day I was sitting on a bench waiting for some friends in Antigua when a white dude sat down next to me (this is common stance in Antigua since at times it feels like there are more tourists there than Guatemalans). I thought he might be from the States so I struck up a conversation with him. Turns out he was from France and spoke poor English, but we were able to chat in Spanish. He was an awesome dude! Turns out he's a nutritionist who works with kids in foreign countries. He started out as a volunteer but now has a paid position and has traveled non-stop the last five years throughout Central/South America and Africa. He gave me some great pointers about what non-profits he's had success with, it was a really great conversation and it never would have happened if I didn't speak Spanish! A similar thing happened again this weekend. I was on the bus to Antigua and I noticed two white folks (I swear I speak to people other than white folks, they just stick out more here!) I sat next to one of them for the bus ride and I was really curious about his story (the town he was coming from isn't known as a big tourist hub so it's really rare to see extranjeros (foreigners) on the bus. I have a natural aversion to talking to folks on the bus because it's really hard for me to hear what their saying, but this guy was lanky and bearded with thick framed glasses and I had a sudden desperate hope that he was a gay Brooklyn hipster on vacation or something. Turns out I was slightly off the mark, a quick conversation revealed that he was actually a volunteer from Belgium doing some kind of project near my orphanage. I asked him twice what he did and couldn't understand what he said either time (Spanish with a foreign accent is even HARDER for me to understand). Eventually I just faked it and said, "Oh that must be challenging" which is a statement that can pretty much be applied to any job. We exchanged numbers since he's here for a few more months and doesn't have much of a support system. Next time the other volunteers hang out I'll invite him and ask him to explain his very interesting project to everyone (while I listen intently, hopefully in a less-noisy setting). But anyway, again the point here is that I wouldn't have been able to talk to that dude if I couldn't speak Spanish. Opportunities, I tell you!

Speaking of language, my English classes have been going really well. Last weekend I actually made a lesson plan for my class with Tia Rosa and Ezekiel. It worked out well. They weren't too thrilled to spend the first part of class doing review from last week, but since I've decided to be a hard-ass teacher, I made them do it anyway ;) Besides, the Carroll Book of ESL states that repetition is the most important part of learning a new language. Tia Rosa offered to make me dinner at her house next week which I'm totally into! She seems to think that my mom will be upset if I lose weight on this trip so she's always force feeding me something, so I'm a little concerned about proportions when I have dinner with her, but I've certainly dealt with more difficult things in my life. I hope she makes fried plantains <3 Ok, ok, kids. How are the kids doing. Everyone is lovely, I have my own little group of young people who I'm friends with now, they come in to visit me in my little hidden room behind the clinic. I've been taking a little boy to med runs the last couple of weeks. He's only three and another completely adorable kid. He's so serious all the time and very quiet, which is super cute in a little kid. We read books together a lot and last time we spent a good two hours telling each other stories. He loves lions and he wants me to tell all these different stories about him being a lion and going on adventures, it's so much fun. He has amniotic band syndrome which is a fairly common syndrome. During pregnancy fibrous strands float around inside the amniotic fluid. These strands can wrap around an embryos body parts. Since these fibers can't stretch, as the embryo grows, the fibers become tight and eventually cut off pieces of the body. Its kind of like when a dog gets an embedded collar (for those of you who are obsessed with Animal Cops like I am). Anyway, there are varying degrees of severity, depending on what parts of the body are effected. Some babies miscarry due to this if the bands wrap around an especially important part of the body. Most live births present with missing fingers or toes like this little guy. He's lucky in that he's only missing a few fingers, nothing that will impact him too badly. He's generally a really healthy kid. Oh except I need to add that he gets HORRIBLY car sick and has puked with me a total of 10 times. I now keep several bags and a towel to protect our clothes whenever we have to travel together. I have so much more that needs to be said but I need to go to sleep. Tomorrow I'll write some more (after my bid presentation, that is!) Yeah, i should probably mention something about that, at least. Tomorrow is my first charla (workshop/inservice) for the teachers. I'm teaching them some basic first aid since all the classrooms have access to first aid boxes and no one has a clear idea of how they're supposed to be used. I'm a little nervous that a) I won't have my power-point done in time, though I'm close to the end and more-so that b) they'll ask me a ton of questions and I'll have no idea what they're saying. Plus a few of my volunteer friends will be in that class so it'll be even more embarrassing if that happens!! Here's hoping that all the teachers' eyes glaze over and I can escape unharassed :) Here's a pic of Tia Rosa singing Spanish children's songs to me and a kid!