Parasites, Earthquakes and Flooding.. Oh my!

There are a lot of crazy things happening in Panama right now, so let´s get started.

First of all, we´re now approaching nearly one month in our community and we´re having a great time. We are BUSY! We have been meeting with countless community groups and businesses, as well as groups from communities up to several hours away from ours, to get to know them and how we might be able to best serve them. We´re also getting into a routine in the community and everyday feel a little bit more like it´s home to us. And, let´s face it, we´re still in the ¨rockstar¨phase in town. Kids and adults alike have taken to shouting our names as we pass by, and we´re asked to visit and stop in often.

Now, the other stuff...

1. Parasites. I (Lisa) have parasites. Lets just say that 9 days ago now, I started having diarrhea, which got progressively worse everyday. I also felt nauseated a lot, and would waver between having no appetite at all, or feeling like I was starving to death. My energy level was minimal. Last Saturday night was rough. I couldn´t stop going. If you get my drift. So, Sunday morning, we called the Peace Corps doctor, and I was on my way to David to go to the hospital. Yesterday morning I went to the hospital, and was immediately hooked up to an I.V. and they did a blood test and told me that I´ve got parasites! Now, I´m on medication to kill everything off and try to get me back to normal, but it´s got me feeling icky too. But, the explosive diarrhea is a thing of the past. I should count my lucky stars that this is the first bad thing health wise I´ve had to deal with (should we count the pink eye experience or falling down and hurting my back in the river) when other volunteers in our group have had issues from day one.

2. Hunger. I´ve never before felt hunger like I´ve felt it here in the past few weeks. I´m guessing that the parasites are mostly to blame. Anyone that´s done Weight Watchers can probably agree that the first week you´re on plan is hard, and you feel like you´re starving. That´s nothing. And really, I can´t begin to imagine what real hunger and malnourishment is like. But having my hunger wake me up in the middle of the night, and keep me up for hours because it´s consuming my thoughts, is a new level of hunger for me. To be fair, I should mention that the food just isn´t doing it for me. I eat tons of white rice. Tons of nutrient lacking, flavorless white rice. The vegetables that were in abundance when we first arrived have disappeared. We´re not even getting the boiled green bananas anymore, which I actually miss. And at times, we´re now getting canned fish, which is making my stomach flip right now just thinking about it. Before it sounds all doom and gloom though, I will say that it makes the prospects of cooking for ourselves soon seem so much better.

3. Earthquake! Last Wednesday morning we experienced the strongest earthquake we´ve been through, at a 6.2. We ¨woke¨up shortly after 1am to the strong shaking. I actually crawled out of bed at 1am to relieve myself, and came back in the shack and noticed that the dog from next door had snuck in our house. It was cowering against the wall and freaked me out. I shooed it out and went back to bed. At first when the quake hit, I thought ¨what a freakishly strong wind!¨ (People have shared that we get very strong winds in the summer here - which is nearly upon us) Then I realized it was shaking. This quake was different from my last big one (in Fairbanks, Alaska at a 5.8) because we were about as close to the earth as possible this time, and the last one hit while I was sleeping on the top floor of an 8 story building. Our host dad woke up and thought about getting us up, but told me the next morning that he knew we were sleeping. I reassured him the next morning, that if he thinks the zinc shack is going to fall on us, he´s more than welcome to scream and yell and get us out of bed!

4. Floods. We´re in the rainy season right now. There´s also a tropical depression hanging out on the coast that´s threatening to become a cyclone. That´s not a good mix. We´ve had no issues in our site because we´re living at about 4,000 feet, but all of the water has to go somewhere, and unfortunately it has caused really devastating flooding in the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui and ours, the Comarca Ngobe-Bugle. So much so that the Peace Corps Panama powers that be have declared that everyone in these areas has to stay where they are right now, until further instructions arrive. This means I am in David (see number 1), and Ben is still in our community. We originally planned to have a nice private Thanksgiving in Boquete, but Boquete is devastated by the floods. Then we thought David, or the beach, but as it stands, no one is going anywhere, and we may not even have the holiday together. Which brings me to my last point...

5. Giving thanks. There is a lot for us to be thankful for this year. I could try to list them all out and would surely forget some, but I´ll sum it up by saying that we´re thankful for this opportunity and experienceand we´re eternally thankful for family and friends. And machetes (which are great for killing roaches).

Please keep the people of Panama in your thoughts in this difficult time. Also, if you´re feeling like you´d like to help the Peace Corps, or our projects in Panama, please take some time to check out the Peace Corps webpage and click on Donate Now!. You can choose specific countries, projects or volunteers to help fund.