Off Probation

My readers (all both of them) might remember a couple of posts I wrote last month in which I stated that things were going badly here and I was thinking of coming home. Well, at that time, I had put myself on one-month probation. I told myself that if things didn't get better in a month, I would make a final decision. That month is over today, but I've realized for a while (a week maybe?) that I really don't want to leave yet.

To defend myself, it wasn't just run-of-the-mill problems that made me want to leave. Sure, I'm bothered sometimes by my living conditions, some of the people in my site, and an overall lack of productivity. But I was in a serious relationship, and that gave me kind of a support system to deal with all the things I don't like about Peace Corps. I started wanting to leave when that relationship ended. I was experiencing everything anyone experiences during a painful breakup, plus I was bored and lonely in a rural village with way too much time to think about everything that was bad in my life.

That's all I'll say about that. This isn't someone's angsty high school LiveJournal, after all.

Luckily, some really good things have happened this month. And they are:

• The field trip I wrote about
• I solicited for some equipment for our health dispensario, and the grant was approved, thanks to Kids to Kids, an organization that donates money to benefit kids around the world. As part of this project, I'll be giving interactive basic health lessons to kids, plus our dispensario gets a fence, a nebulizer for all the respiratory infections we have, and a stove to make healthy food for visitors and events. Plus, I have been working with my community counterpart to present information we received from a Peace Corps health training to the volunteer promoters in my village.
• We started Saturday computer classes, which I supervise and three of my university friends (who are scholarship students doing this for service hours) teach.
• It's scholarship application season, and I've been working on getting three girls from my community high school or university scholarships.
• It looks like we might be able to start building eco-friendly stoves soon (wait till I start hitting all you gringos up for money!)
• I have officially taken over the Peace Corps travelling theater group, which keeps me busy with one of my greatest loves.
• We are FINALLY doing a trash and recycling campaign at school, with long-term plans to keep collecting bottles and cans, which we can sell to raise funds that we never have enough of.
• I found Raid Casa y Jardin in the supermarket, which I have successfully used to destroy the ants and crickets (yes, crickets) that were infesting my house. The crickets in particular were holed up in a hollow part of the window shutter right over my bed, and I couldn't sleep for a week straight. Until I poisoned them to death, with no regrets.
  
• I'm coming home for Christmas and the New Year if it's the last thing I do on this earth.

Paz y amor.