5/9

Plum killed her first chicken.  Plum proceeded to puke aforementioned chicken all over my floor.  Did you know that a goat jumps 4+ feet in the air repeatedly and quickly bows into a charging stance when angry?  No?  Well, Plum and I shouldn’t know these things either.  I am not a fan of goats.  Local transportation went on strike.  Putting it lightly, that was a mess…that, of course, landed me in the back of a dilapidated van speeding through back roads trying to avoid the police.  I got electrocuted while trying to do my laundry.  Good thing no one noticed.  Wait, is that a good thing?  Essentially, life for Plum and I hit rock bottom in month 8.

But things are looking up!  We are still working on training, now with a heavier focus on not killing others.  I haven’t seen the goat for a few days and am fairly certain my neighbors ate it.  Damn goat.  RIP – not.  I believe myself to be both physically and emotionally healed from the laundry incident.  And most importantly, new projects are in the works.  I’ve started work on a program called Hogares Saludables (Healthy Homes) in which I train health promoters in the area in basic campo health care (simple things such as transplants, bypass surgery, and dialysis).  I’m lying, we’ll actually only be covering topics such as, hygiene, safe water, breastfeeding, family and child nutrition, infectious diseases, reproductive health, family planning (!!Stop having 14 kids!!), STIs, HIV/AIDS, and family violence.  The closest thing to procedures we will get is potentially sutures and injections.  It’s mostly geared towards women with young children, but any adult can participate.  The goal is that, once graduated, these health promoters will be leaders within the community and spread their health knowledge.  I’m also working with this program in surrounding communities, so it’s nice to get out occasionally, see different sites and new people.  As the school year winds down, I will also be starting a Chicas Brillantes (Brilliant Girls) group for girls ages 9 – 12.  Hopefully, this oversized 9 year old right here, who can’t take a walk without almost getting attacked by the nearest farm animal or successfully complete the simple task of laundry without almost killing herself – will somehow be empowering for these chicas.  We’ll talk about things like self-esteem, health, diversity, values, violence & discrimination against women, and the importance of planning our futures (I should probably get a guest speaker for that one).  We’ll do service projects like a river clean-up and raising money to improve our library.  We’ll have fun, too.  We’ll be getting together with the girls groups of other volunteers occasionally, and maybe even attending regional conferences.  I plan on introducing them to s’mores one night, and even perhaps my famous grilled cheese with hot dog slices sandwiches.  Mostly, I hope this group serves as a safe place for these girls, a place to escape from the culture of machismo at least for a bit, and a place to talk about anything.  As these projects get up and going, I will write more.