For me, though, the world is a much happier, more beautiful place now that it's not an icebox of nausea.
I tried to take Friday easy because I still had a little bit of a very low grade fever going on, but thankfully it never came back. Most of our morning was spent talking about general safety, and to demonstrate the lessons, we performed skits showing bad and good behavior (PC here is huge on skits). We talked about the EAP, the evacuation plan in Ecuador, and several aspirantes performed a puppet show about what to do and what not to do when PC goes through the stages of EAP in an emergency.
And then the fun really began.
Kelley, a PCMO, arrived to talk to us about diarrhea.
First, though, a funny story. Later that night, having dinner with the host family, my host dad asks what we did today. So, very timidly, I said we talked about diarrhea. He thought I said we talked about theories. Theories about what? he asked. Ohhh, no. Not theories. Diarrhea. He seemed disappointed.
Anyway, Kelley gave a humorous talk on poo and related illnesses. And the worst part - worms. I'm hoping I can avoid them completely. Maybe that wasn't the worst part. The worst part might have been that the talk was right before lunchtime.
A large group of volunteers around Ecuador came to talk with us privately, without PC staff, so we could ask them our personal questions without fear of repercussions. I think it was time well spent and I got a lot out of it.
Now the best part, where the title of this entry comes from - a couple aspirantes brought their slackline kits with them, so two were set up in the very large walled-in yard of the training center. While a bunch of people played soccer, I and others slacklined. And it felt SO AMAZING to get back on the rope. It's regrettably been over a year since I last did it, but I'm happy to say it's like riding a bike - it comes right back. My balance is a shaky and my muscles are way weak so I can't do an on-line start, but it'll come.
Today was Saturday, and yes we had class at 8:30 a.m., which means I got up at 6 a.m. Class on Saturdays is culture and language, so we worked in our small language groups on grammar and the history of Ecuador. During break, I laid in the sun and soaked in the warmth, fully appreciating what a beautiful day it was. Finally, I can feel it!
Morgan & I & others had plans to wander around Tumbaco afterwards to 1) find food (apparently there's a vegetarian restaurant around here somewhere?!), 2) find a champa (a waterproof jacket, I think?), 3) find sandals and sneakers. We lost the other interested people and couldn't exactly find the restaurant, but we ran into Ricky and a bread/ice cream store at the same time so things were great. We were having little other success, though, so we tried the mall which is a loooong walk in the direction of Quito. I think we spent about an hour looking through all the books in Spanish. One, a Neruda poetry book, I almost bought. I wanted to buy Latitudes Piratas (the posthumous Crichton book) but it was $23. Ouch! No.
Once more, no luck. But we did buy some ridiculously amazing spaghetti alfredo with a salad for $4. It was the definition of ginormous, and we probably should have shared.
I wandered home around 6ish, no problems with the host family. All is well.
Tomorrow: wash clothes 'on the rock' as they say.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! It's also my half birthday. Weird.
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