Peace Corps Post - February 13, 2004

Oh man, I find this entry simultaneously embarrassing and hilarious. I also found a sticky note on this entry that was just labelled "barf." Apparently that was how I categorized it in some previous read through. Let the record show: before joining the Peace Corps, my three biggest fears in life, in order, were 1) barfing, 2) needles, and 3) death.

February 13, 2004 – Friday

9:37pm

Gberiere

Well it has certainly been an eventful past 48 hours! Sheesh, where to begin? Well on Wedneday night, around 8:30, I had a major bowel movement for the first time in two days. I thought that was probably the end of it and went to bed around 10:30 or 11. I woke up around 12:30 and had to go again and felt fairly nauseous. I fell back asleep, but woke up again around 5:30am to go to the bathroom. I was feeling so nauseous that I sat outside [my hut] for a while trying to force down some rehydration salts and hoping I wasn’t going to puke. In an odd sort of way it was really nice to be up to watch this culture get moving. The sun slowly came up, I listened to the mosque, I watched my dad pray, and I heard all of the animals come to life. I started to feel better so I went back to my bed to try and sleep. Right around 6:30 or 7 I woke up suddenly feeling extremely nauseous and went outside and booted. It was so crazy how fast it happened, but even more crazy how much better I felt afterwards. Like a million bucks. It wasn’t nearly as terrible as I was fearing, but I also only did it once, so we’ll see how I feel when it happens multiple times over a short period of time.

My host parents of course flipped out in their Guinean way of doing so and asked me what I had eaten at lunch the day before, because it couldn’t have been anything they served me. My father promptly determined it was the spaghetti and even after I told him I eat spaghetti all the time at home, the whole town continues to tell me it was the spaghetti. They don’t really understand that it could have been anything.

So then I tried to tell them I didn’t want to eat anything and that I was going to try and sleep. Oooooh no. That was not happening. This culture deals with sick people quite differently than ours. Every 10 minutes someone was knocking on my door for some really important reason like to sweep my room, to tell me they’d be back, to give me food, or to ask me what was wrong. If someone wasn’t directly knocking on my door then there were seven kids outside of my hut and at least three of them were crying at the top of their lungs for extended periods of time. I was about to shoot someone.

So after getting no sleep and now moving on to severe stomach cramps stage, I went to meet the [Peace Corps] bus at 10 to go to Dubreka to hopefully get some peace and quiet. I slept for a little on a couch over there, but still felt shitty. I talked to the nurse and basically scammed my way into going back to Conakry with her to spend the night there. I did a stool sample for the first time, so that’s pretty crazy that that is something I barely flinched at. Crazy what you can adjust to over short periods of time.

When we got to Conakry the nurse, Anne, took my vitals and took some blood. All of the tests ended up coming back negative, so that was good. I then went to the Peace Corps house and met some of the current PCVs while I made my cup of noodles. Ironically enough, Jake [a friend of a friend of a friend I heard about before I left] was there, also sick, so that was kind of cool to be able to hang out some with him. There was another huge coincidence while I was there in that a PCV, Megan, put together that I was Julia M and told me that her father and brother were flying in to visit tonight and that her dad grew up with Margaret Murphy and that they were bringing over a package for me. So weird/small worldish, but pretty cool.

I then went to do some emailing. It was so great to have unlimited time! I also sent out an email with the phone number of the house on it and immediately my parents started to try and call. I ran back to the house so I was there when they finally got through. It was SOsosososo great to talk to them for an uninterrupted, extended period of time. We talked for 45 minutes and I felt like we had barely begun. I’m really glad my first phone call to them wasn’t from Dubreka where we would only be able to talk for a little while. That would have been painful, I think. It was so great to hear their voices, though, and we of course wasted phone time over dumb things like Janet Jackson in the Superbowl, but it was great. I think I was happiest to hear that it sounds like they are doing ok with me being gone. I don’t think my mom sits around a nervous wreck and they weren’t even flipped out about me being sick, so it makes me feel better to not have to worry about them worrying.

John [brother] then called later that night which was also great, but then the electricity went out so we got cut off, which sucked. Better than nothing, though. Then I was lying in bed around 11 and heard the phone ring. I debated getting it and then jumped out of bed and ran. Glad I did, because it turned out to be Biggie [friend from high school]. Of all the people to actually call me, it doesn’t surprise me that it was him, he’s always good about that kind of stuff. We only got to talk briefly, but I take what I can get around here!

Sleeping in a bed without mosquito netting was surprisingly strange. I felt very exposed. Also having a street light shining in my window all night was very bizarre. I remember thinking how dark Africa was at night at first and didn’t realize how quickly I had gotten used to it. It was great to sleep without worrying about crazy bugs in my room or people walking around and to have AC!! The bathroom two steps away was also genius.

I “slept in” until about 8:40am, the latest I’ve slept since being a PCV, and woke up to take a warm shower. It was heavenly. Then, as I was sitting around debating what to do, the phone rang and I picked up. It was Jason (another friend in the Peace Corps) calling from Tonga! We had about a four second delay and a twelve hour time difference, but it was great because he is definitely the last person I thought I would talk to on the phone over the next two years. It sounds like things are going well for him still, in the “Beach Corps,” so that was good to hear.

I went to the computer lab again and had so many emails back from people, it was great! I read them all and responded to a lot of them, so that was a weight off my shoulders. All of the emails were great and everyone seems very interested to know what I am up to! My mom basically said that all of [my hometown] ends up getting my emails, which I believe.

So I was definitely not looking forward to getting back here. Imagine my surprise when I found myself somewhat glad to be back. Coming back to this group and seeing how concerned people were about me and were really worried I wouldn’t be at the party tomorrow made me realize how close I have already become with these people and how glad I was to be back around them!

I was then dreading coming back to my host family, so imagine my even greater surprise when I was somewhat happy to see them too. They seem to have laid off somewhat, so maybe someone said something to them, but regardless, they just seemed really happy to have me back and genuinely missed me while I was gone. My father said that even my little bratty namesake kept asking when I was coming back and looking up the road for me yesterday. Kind of cute, actually.

So yeah, a lot has gone on and I feel a little overwhelmed with this rollercoaster of emotions, but at this point I still don’t want to go home, so that’s good!

Tomorrow we find out our site assignments, which really hasn’t hit home yet, I don’t think. I’m really nervous, but I don’t know why since I don’t think it will mean much to me anyway. I’m more nervous to see who I’ll be near, but I might not know them either, so who knows! It’s definitely going to be a crazy day, though, seeing as we’re having our big Valentine’s Day fete tomorrow night.