Cashew Face... and other adventures.

Hello Dear Friends,

Time passes quickly.. I can hardly believe I only have 5 months left! Kind of scary because I have a lot to get done, and I don't exactly know what is next, but kind of exciting too. I do miss all the lovely folks at home. :-)

Oh man, I have learned some interesting things here. One of the most interesting is the beliefs the rural folks have about mixing foods and health. They think, for example, that eating mangoes and drinking milk in the same day is a sure way to a quick death. Same with coffee and fruit. Or taking a bath after eating beans or drinking coffee. I don't quite get this, how it started, or why people still believe it. But maybe by now, because so many generations have passed on this information, people really aren't able to digest these mixtures of food. They are too afraid to try, so nobody really knows. They think my stomach is amazing though. My dad was bragging about me to some guy at the market, telling him I am able to eat mangoes, yogurt, milk, and cereal all in the same meal without showing the slightest decline in health. Who knew. I have a stomach of great strength.

I have also had an interesting time learning about their perceptions of water and what is good water and what is bad water to drink. It has been interesting to live first hand with a family who does not have access to a completely safe water supply. They drink water from a nearby dam, which they claim is very clean and safe, but my belly still had problems with it. When I had problems with the dam water, they suggested I drink 'mineral water' which I assumed they would buy it from the store. But I soon saw my mom filling up a 20 L mineral water bottle with water out of an uncovered metal barrel from the backyard. This was apparently my 'mineral water'. My parents claimed that this water was completely safe because it was rainwater, and did not have fish or other things living in it. So I tried it for a bit to give them the benefit of the doubt, but still, belly problems. And then I saw some little swimmers in it. So now I'm on to the boiling phase of my drinking water. But through all of this progression, I have been able to teach what I know about pathogens and parasites and bacteria and how they travel and cause problems to human health. It has been educational for me to learn their perceptions about what makes water safe, and educational for them to learn a bit more about the unseen dangers of water. Even though it looks clear, it can still be very harmful. I am planning on making a slow sand filter for my family (and me) to try out and see if that improves the family's health.

I've had some funny things happen as always. Like a frog landing on my face after my sister startled it by moving some dishes around in the sink. I threw the fruit I had into the air, grabbed my face to try to figure out what wet, cold thing had decided to stick itself to my cheek, and screamed and danced around the kitchen. After I succeeded on batting it to the floor, I looked over to see my family in the other room all wondering what had caused my strange behavior. (They hadn't seen the frog) Once I explained, they all had a good laugh. I also had an embarrassing language blunder where I tried to use a new word I thought I heard. It is a word meaning to snack on something liquidy like mangoes or a popsicle. But instead of saying this new word I learned, I mixed it up with another word and said "Hey girls! Let's go rape some mangoes!" oops...

And now, I shall leave you with some pics of the past month or so. Enjoy.

Ice cream with my co-worker and friend Libéria on my birthday!

Early in the morning on my birthday with my folks at the organic market.

My family threw a huge surprise birthday party for me. I had no idea! They even got me to help make the food without me knowing it was for my own party. Sneaky family I have...

AHH!!! WHATS THAT?? This is the result of me processing cashews. Apparently the smoke is very dangerous to inhale, the oil of the cashew shells is very strong, and then I ate a ton of cashews, something I'd never done in the states because I never liked nuts and never tried cashews. So the combination of those things left me looking like this for about 4 or 5 days. I'm still waiting on blood work to see if I am allergic to eating cashews, or just the rest of the horrible combination. It was a challenging couple of days..

Finally, my first dry composting latrine is underway after months of research and planning. It takes a while to get stuff done around here if you're not used to the pace of work and where to buy materials and such. It is not yet finished, but will hopefully be soon!

The lovely women who will be the first recipients of the dry latrine project. They are old spinster sisters and I have enjoyed getting to know them while waiting for various parts of the project to fall in place.

Well friends, that's all for now. Hope you're all well. Thank you for the continued support, emails, notes, letters, prayers, and thoughts. Every little bit helps close the gap between here and home.

Peace,
AnaMaria