I came to Bolivia as a Meredith-ito (skinny little meredith), and I leave a Meredith-gordito (little fat meredith), due to the incredibly delicious food that I keep finding everywhere. I think it will be well worth it. After finding tiny chicken livers still in anatomically correct form and edematous, squishy fat chicken feet floating in my soup in Peru, I was ready for a change.
The transition here has been great. Of course there are always bumps in the road. I have become so awkward and klutzy here. I guess it stems from not knowing the language and always feeling a bit awkward and clueless. It's tough, because I feel so out of my element in a way, never knowing what anyone is talking about, trying to serve coffee to my coworkers in this archaic coffee maker while it explodes all over the wall, trying to figure out how to open a bag of milk and instead spilling all of it into the silverware drawer, literally tripping up the stairs of the office and busting my butt three times in the past week, accidentally ripping a all my curtains out of the wall while simply trying to close them, and the whole time saying "Como (what?), Perdon (sorry?) and Otravez, por favor (say it again please?). Aaaggh so frustrating in a way, but the people here are so gracious and welcoming. It seems that the most common thing they say to me is, "Tranquilaaa Mariaaaaa" (Meredith Caaalm doownn).
The people here really are amazing. I have had people literally give me tv's, stop their work to help me find my way around the city, interrupt their day altogether for hours at a time to come to the police station with me to interpret, take me to "la cancha" this huge mile long market just to help me find a shower curtain for my bathroom. It makes me feel guilty about all the times I have known someone new to town and been much less gracious and generous with my time. I am definitely learning many things from the culture, including that rushing around all the time is not the way to live the life. In fact, I'm learning how to be pretty lazy!
Speaking of lazy, today was my first day of work in Punata. Punata is where I will be working on my project on Chagas. It's a poor province on the outskirts of Cochabamba with 24,000 people. There are mini towns inside the province that my team and I will be visiting one at a time, surveying the people to tease out people with heart disease or people at risk of heart disease, while also screening for Chagas, and helping guide them to treatment, if appropriate.
So I arrived in Punata today ready to work! Revved up after sitting on my booty for the last month, I was ready for some action. Daniel Lozano (this doctor that I work with) and I arrived at a comfortable 11 am (I will usually leave the house by 7, but it seems he wanted to take it easy on me today) and walked around the hospital of Punata, which is 1 story tall and super sprawled out, with stucco buildings, tons of flowers, and of course a hut that sells snacks and egg sandwiches. We stopped for about half an hour to sit while some other doctors were eating a mid-morning snack (egg sandwiches) outside at a plastic table outside of the hut. They argued for a bit about whether or not it was a good idea to start a study on Brucellosis, a bacteria that causes a disease sort of like TB and comes from goats milk and raw cheese.
After that, I was picked up by somebody on my community team that I will be working with for the next six months, and we caught a cab stuffed with 6 other people (that I didn't know) out to Laguna S ulty, the community that we are studying right now. We were dropped off at the "Center of Health," aka a covered basketball court in front of a church/school/clinic. I went into the clinic, which was completely empty except for my team, which consists of Doctor Gimena, another Doctor from Punata (I can't remember his name), three nurses (Heloina, Gladis, and Serlia) and me. All the patients had gone for the day, and they had prepared a hot dish, rice with milk, to welcome me since it was cold outside. The next hour was spent sitting around a table drinking our snack and talking about the compatibility of astrological signs (in spanish, of course).
Pretty intense work, I know. I was pretty wiped out as we finished our arroz con leche (rice milk), so we decided it was time to head home. All seven of us hopped in the car, only to find it wouldn't start, so we had to jump out and push it while the Doctor pressed on the gas and tried to get it going. It worked! 10 minutes later we were back in the main part of Punata, and we caught our hour-long cab ride (this time only stuffed with six people) back to Cochabamba. I slept the whole way back and when I woke up I was surprised at how nauseated I was. I assumed it was carsick ness, but when i got home and sat down for a bit, my stomach kept jumping around and soon enough I found myself with a fever that kept rising, and all my muscles were aching, and I couldn't move from the nausea. I won't include details after this point =)....
Guess that arroz con leche wasn't a very good idea -- who knows really what it was. Bolivia is known for its especially dirty water. Luckily I am surrounded by doctors and Daniel came over and checked me out and left me with some Oral rehydration solution and crackers. It's now almost 24 hours later, and my fever is gone, but it still sucks to move. I just tried to open the crackers that Daniel give me, but seriously tried for over 20 minutes laying in my bed and couldn't do it. I was actually too nauseated to get up and go to the kitchen and get scissors. I think it
might actually be my pinnacle of patheticness.
Anyhoo, waiting for it to pass and my friend Wilson is bringing me chicken soup, which will be my first thing to try to keep down. Crossing my fingers. Just because I thought my patheticness was kind of funny, I have enclosed a picture of the crackers and me post fight (they are still closed -- it won)
Hope all is well and surviving from the swine flu up there ;).... I am missing you all. Please dont forget that you can call me for free from any local phone with the number 251-300-5773. I would love to hear from people!
P.S. I just realized that this blog started with kisses and ended with vomiting. heh heh heh. Berg, you are right, I have a serious flight of ideas problem =) In my defense, I wrote it over the course of three days.
Speaking of lazy, today was my first day of work in Punata. Punata is where I will be working on my project on Chagas. It's a poor province on the outskirts of Cochabamba with 24,000 people. There are mini towns inside the province that my team and I will be visiting one at a time, surveying the people to tease out people with heart disease or people at risk of heart disease, while also screening for Chagas, and helping guide them to treatment, if appropriate.
So I arrived in Punata today ready to work! Revved up after sitting on my booty for the last month, I was ready for some action. Daniel Lozano (this doctor that I work with) and I arrived at a comfortable 11 am (I will usually leave the house by 7, but it seems he wanted to take it easy on me today) and walked around the hospital of Punata, which is 1 story tall and super sprawled out, with stucco buildings, tons of flowers, and of course a hut that sells snacks and egg sandwiches. We stopped for about half an hour to sit while some other doctors were eating a mid-morning snack (egg sandwiches) outside at a plastic table outside of the hut. They argued for a bit about whether or not it was a good idea to start a study on Brucellosis, a bacteria that causes a disease sort of like TB and comes from goats milk and raw cheese.
After that, I was picked up by somebody on my community team that I will be working with for the next six months, and we caught a cab stuffed with 6 other people (that I didn't know) out to Laguna S ulty, the community that we are studying right now. We were dropped off at the "Center of Health," aka a covered basketball court in front of a church/school/clinic. I went into the clinic, which was completely empty except for my team, which consists of Doctor Gimena, another Doctor from Punata (I can't remember his name), three nurses (Heloina, Gladis, and Serlia) and me. All the patients had gone for the day, and they had prepared a hot dish, rice with milk, to welcome me since it was cold outside. The next hour was spent sitting around a table drinking our snack and talking about the compatibility of astrological signs (in spanish, of course).
Pretty intense work, I know. I was pretty wiped out as we finished our arroz con leche (rice milk), so we decided it was time to head home. All seven of us hopped in the car, only to find it wouldn't start, so we had to jump out and push it while the Doctor pressed on the gas and tried to get it going. It worked! 10 minutes later we were back in the main part of Punata, and we caught our hour-long cab ride (this time only stuffed with six people) back to Cochabamba. I slept the whole way back and when I woke up I was surprised at how nauseated I was. I assumed it was carsick ness, but when i got home and sat down for a bit, my stomach kept jumping around and soon enough I found myself with a fever that kept rising, and all my muscles were aching, and I couldn't move from the nausea. I won't include details after this point =)....
Guess that arroz con leche wasn't a very good idea -- who knows really what it was. Bolivia is known for its especially dirty water. Luckily I am surrounded by doctors and Daniel came over and checked me out and left me with some Oral rehydration solution and crackers. It's now almost 24 hours later, and my fever is gone, but it still sucks to move. I just tried to open the crackers that Daniel give me, but seriously tried for over 20 minutes laying in my bed and couldn't do it. I was actually too nauseated to get up and go to the kitchen and get scissors. I think it
might actually be my pinnacle of patheticness.Anyhoo, waiting for it to pass and my friend Wilson is bringing me chicken soup, which will be my first thing to try to keep down. Crossing my fingers. Just because I thought my patheticness was kind of funny, I have enclosed a picture of the crackers and me post fight (they are still closed -- it won)
Hope all is well and surviving from the swine flu up there ;).... I am missing you all. Please dont forget that you can call me for free from any local phone with the number 251-300-5773. I would love to hear from people!
P.S. I just realized that this blog started with kisses and ended with vomiting. heh heh heh. Berg, you are right, I have a serious flight of ideas problem =) In my defense, I wrote it over the course of three days.
Well, your life sounds fabulous, dahling! Nicholas and I said that you don't realize how talented you are as a writer. Your blog is so funny and so interesting! I love it. I love you more, my girl. I can't wait to read more. Stay away from those bugs and don't let them bite you! Keep trying to learn the language. I know you will! Keep riding mopeds, they are fun! (As long as you don't get hurt) Make yourself get up to get the scissors for the crachers. Crackers really help when you are nauseous-I remember when I was preggers with you!!! Also, most of all, keep remembering how much we love and miss you. Momma-mia
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