Let's get organized here...

Phew, what a month February has been! March looks like it should be a little smoother, so I'm happy to be getting myself organized. The 16th I attended our Reconect meeting at the Peace Corps office (roughly a 5 hour trip by chicken bus). Since I had a dentist appointment scheduled for the Monday, I went for the weekend, which was wonderful! A lot of my friends from training were there too, who I hadn't seen in over 3 months, so it was great to catch up and share experiences, in the relaxing atmosphere of Antigua:) Reconnect was good too. The idea is to get everybody together with our program directors after our first three months of service to talk things over, get new ideas, ask questions, teach us about paperwork that we'll soon need to be handing in, etc. It was a long day (8am -6pm sitting in hard plastic chairs is kind of a rough adjustment for ag volunteers), but well worth the time.

The next day I headed back to Jalapa, but instead of to my site, I went to the city to help translate for American doctors here on a medical mission. It was kind of crazy- as long as I've spoken/studied Spanish, I've never translated that much. But in two days there I probably translated more than I ever have in my life, and it was a challenge! But a good one, b/c I guess now I know that I'm halfway decent as a translator. As for the medical side of things...it was sad, seeing so many hurting people. And a little unsettling to see how little basic knowledge campesinos know about their bodies and how to stay healthy. And some things were just hard to see- a little baby absolutely covered in scabies, a 30-something year old woman who'd suffered a stroke and is now parapalegic and wasting away, and a man with a huge thyroid tumor, to name a few. The doctors, mostly from the Chicago area, worked tirelessly, and were genuinely able to help people. All were enthusiastic and compassionate, and it was great to have the change to work with them. Hopefully I'll be able to help again next year!

After a short weekend break at home, I headed to Guate to pick up Mom and my Uncle Gus, who came to visit for a week! One of my neighbors, who owns the eco park down the road, offered to take me to pick them up in his truck. Thus they were saved the bumpy, sweaty, three hour chicken bus ride from Guate to my site:) I'll expand on their visit later this week (it's getting past my bedtime). And yes, that's right, I'm on the internet at 9:30pm, in the comfort of my own home! I finally broke down and bought internet, and it's WONDERFUL! Ok, maybe this is Peace Corps light, but I'm over worrying about that:) Besides keeping me better connected to the world outside of Soledad Grande, it'll be helpful whenever I need to do some research for work.

Night everyone! To those of you in NY, hope you're surviving the snow!