Recuperation

Mystery solved: I had pneumonia. I spent an entire week in a hotel in San Salvador eating soup once a day. While in the hotel, I made the mistake of watching "A Christmas Story," burst into tears when I saw the snow, and continued feeling homesick for roughly two weeks. Reinforcing my theory that I only get homesick when I'm physically ill in another country. It didn't help that all I wanted for a week was tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwhich, neither of which exist here.

It still sucks a little to think of missing Christmas in America: the parties (especially the Cheverly caroling one) and the glitzy mall displays and Christmas music. The possibility of snow in D.C. and the reality of snow in New England. Hot apple cider, spiced rum, sugar cookies, even the Salvation Army people with those annoying bells. And of course, my family and our tradition of opening presents in the morning and seeing movies in the afternoon. Everyone celebrates Christmas here in a more religious, less commercialized way (processions and midnight mass and fireworks on the 24th) but I totally miss the commercialization.

People keep asking how I got pneumonia in a tropical country. I had never had it in my life, and even among Peace Corps volunteers here it's not that common. All I can think of is I had a cold for a week and I guess it just got worse and worse until my lung got infected. After antibiotics, I feel a lot better, although my chest still hurts when I exercise (which I'm not supposed to be doing yet, but my site is a steep 30-minute hike from town so I really have no choice, do I?) I keep going to the doctor in the capital like every 10 days. At least it's an excuse to go to the capital, I guess.

The pneumonia really set me back, though. I had about a thousand emails and no food because I couldn't get to town to take care of groceries and the Internet. I missed an environmental camp and a couple of activities with the youth group in town. And I spent three hectic days preparing for a briefing with my program director that I should have been working on for weeks. It all came together in the end, although now he wants me to re-form the community development organization that fell apart due to in-fighting between neighborhoods. Needless to say, that seems a bit overwhelming, especially right now that I don't really know anyone in the community...we'll see what happens.

What else is new? I bought a fridge two weeks ago and it was finally delivered, so now I can save leftovers and buy things like yogurt! Yesterday I randomly ran into a guy from the Association of Pineapple Producers of El Salvador, and he showed me the organization's huge expanse of fields and crops. I might work with them to make pineapple jams and things (mmm.) I'm starting to work on a project the previous volunteer left, where we build fuel-efficient stoves for the community...everyone here uses wood-burning stoves and sometimes they have to walk for like 3 hours to get the wood. These new stoves cook fast and burn less wood, saving time and trees. The whole community is in love with them so I'm trying to learn all I can about how to build and fund them.

My bout of homesickness is over now that I'm working and back in the swing of things. We'll see how I feel on December 25, but I'm looking forward to Christmas Salvie-style.

Pictures are failing to upload. So what else is new.

Paz y amor. Send me a line.