Ya Bolio

21:50 15 July 2008

Today I became a lot more ill for a short period of time. After lunch, I returned to classes and began to feel less than well but not too poorly, but by the time dinner had rolled around, the heat and whatever I had ingested got to me and I felt awful. This led to emergency action on the part of Mama Luba, and I was instructed to lie down on the couch outside (it is slightly cooler than the oppressive 85 degree heat in my room – the windows do not open here). I took some of the medicines Peace Corps provided and after a two hour nap, I feel much better. Not so much that I can eat anything though, not that I haven’t been offered it. On the plus side, this condition has allowed me to refuse food, I had two cups of tea and a piece of bread for dinner and nobody questioned me.

Hopefully I will continue to feel better as tomorrow is our first Hub day, a day spent in the slightly large city of Kant (my village has two general stores- here called magazines, a café that is out of business, a community center, a school, and memorial to the “Patriotic War”- Soviet era lingo for the Second World War). So tomorrow I get to call my parents, send emails, get a cell phone, and enjoy some of the benefits of connectivity to the outside world that I have been missing the past week.

Another village of Trainees came to our village today for cross-cultural training and we found out that our group had its first ET- Peace Corps for Early Termination or Going Home. I was surprised it came so early, but I suspect there will be a number of people in the first few weeks that just realize that Peace Corps, squat toilets, intensive language training, and the flies everywhere are not for them. I have heard that Kyrgyzstan also has a higher drop out rate due to its harsh winters, though I imagine if I can endure it until then, cold weather has never been a problem for me.