Let me explain. A while back, I was chatting with a former PCV that lives in my site and found out that his cat was about to have kittens. I miss my cat back in the states, and decided to take one. So the night I moved into my apartment, I stopped by and brought over the cat. It was only after I had it settled into my apartment that I noticed it was covered in fleas.
What's sad is that I should've known better... as Kelly and I fought this battle 2 years ago in Oakland. I'm now going through the laborious process of washing all my clothes (a much more difficult process in Honduras when you don't have hot water or dryers) and organizing a series of fumigations. In the meantime, I'm getting bit, completely paranoid, and trying to avoid staying in my apartment. I decided not to keep the cat - probably not a good idea to get attached to a pet I'll abandon in 2 years. Hopefully the problem will be over soon (fumigation 2 is this week) and I can return to a normal, sane life.
Toro and I spent a total of 2 nights together. :(
Although I've been on the brink of insanity for nearly a month, everything else in my life is going great! I've been taking lots of little breaks (partly to escape the fleas, of course). I went to Marcala with some USAID counterparts for a small business expo and met up with some of the volunteers that live there. It was their town fair, so we got to spend a day eating fried food and candy apples, and even rode the ferris wheel. It was a well needed break.
Last week I spent the entire week working with Plan (i.e. Plan International), on their new socioeconomic development study. We went out into villages and met with residents to identify the poorest families in each community. This was a super interesting experience for me - it is amazing how different "research" looks here in Honduras. In the US, everyone seeks quantifiable information (surveys, interviews, etc), but here, the accepted method for conducting research is just talking with people. They hold open meetings with community members in each village, have the groups list all of the heads of household, and then ask them who is richest and who is poorest, and why. After compiling the "poor" list, they will go back out to collect more information about those specific families. It will be interesting to see how things progress.
Yesterday morning I went with the aforementioned former PCV to.... a bee yard! He was a beekeeping volunteer about 20 years ago and still works with bees part-time, and offered to take me and the two bilingual school teachers on a trip to move a couple hives. We all fully suited up, and it was a pretty intense experience. I ended up being the only one who didn't get stung, although one got into my veil at the end, which was an adventure. Check that off my life to-do list!
Finally, I got a wonderful surprise in the mail this week - a box of 24 ProMark sticks for the bands that I am working with! They had been using basically anything made of wood/metal, including pens, and drumsticks are really expensive here. Humongous thanks to Matt Savage and ProMark for this wonderful donation!! They will be put to use immediately.
After today, the rest of my October will be very busy. I'll continue working on the socioeconomic study with Plan, and planning the savings curriculum. Our town's festival de arroz (rice) is at the end of the month, so I'm planning a couple activities with the students at the colegio, as well as an expo at the feria with some of the groups that I work with. I also have the next VAC (Volunteer Advisory Council) meeting in Tegucigalpa, where we'll be discussing some recent policy changes. The meeting is on a Friday, so I'm hoping to visit my old host family that weekend for Andrea Pequeña's 5th birthday. She was already planning it back in March, so it should be quite the event! I'm sure the month will be over before I know it.
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