I arrived back in site after a whirlwind tour in San Jose. A few days in the hospital, a few days celebrating Thanksgiving, a few days visiting my host family from training, a few days helping a friend move, a quick meeting with government official about development and now I am back.
Health wise I am recuperating just fine. Although I don't know how the life without chemicals plan will work in actuality. Last night I found a cockroach the size of my ear in the kitchen and decided that is all that I needed to justify Raiding the house.
I spent Thanksgiving with a family from the US Embassy and 4 other volunteers. The family was an American women who worked at the Embassy, an El Salvadorian man that trains Search & Rescue dogs and their two children - ages 2 and 6. They welcomed us into their home for a spectacular meal and let us stay with them for two nights. We ate wonderful food, used their oven, took hot showers, played with the kids, and watched cable TV. All the comforts of home.
Then Biiftu and I went and spent the weekend with our host training families. It was wonderful to see my host family and spend some time with them. I made them curry lentil soup with garlic bread and a funfetti cake for lunch one day and it was delicious. Both nights the power went out, so we made shadow hand puppets and listened to music from our cellphones. It was perfectly comfortable.
Then I helped Biiftu move into her new home. It is a beautiful white simple wood house. We moved all her stuff into her new house, unpacked and went to town to get the last minute necessities. You will be proud to know that I went to a lumber mill, purchased the correct amount of wood and made a counter for Biiftu's kitchen. That's right, handsaw, hammer, nails, wood = beautiful new counter!
Then I had a meeting with a government official in charge of overseeing the local governments and funding projects for small communities. It was productive to meet with her, but a little disillusioning. Because if my community could fill out the project proposal and present it, the funding is more or less available. When I arrived back in my community, the local government was having a meeting (which hasn't happened in months) and we are hopefully going to have local elections this month.
Now I am home. Cricket passed away while I was out of town, which is heartbreaking. The gossip is that she was eaten by a dog. That is two pets that have died or gone missing in two months when I was out of town. I know that I can't expect my neighbor's to take care of my pets the way that I do, but its heartbreaking to keep losing pets and its heartbreaking not to live with animals. Last night was my first night staying in my house completely completely alone.
My house is a mess. I found mice poop on the shelf where all my clothes live. Which means that I need to wash all my clothes and kill an undetermined quantity of mice. I am hoping that the mice haven't eaten holes in my clothes. I also found a mutant spider grasshopper in the bathroom.
Today there will be lots of cleaning- with minimal chemicals. Wish me luck. I could use some luck - maybe some strength too, if its the appropriate time to ask for things.
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