PB & J

It´s been almost 2 weeks since my arrival in Iquitos and I am feeling comfortable and settling in. I´ve found a nice apartment, gotten a cellphone, met with some acquantainces from December, swam in the public pool, watched a Saturday futbol game and gone through my first bout with stomach troubles.

Classes begin the 2nd of June, which means I have spent my time like a lazy unemployed person goofing off in a new city. After the first week here I already had some pangs of homesickness as I came to the realization that I am not here just for a short and innocent vacation. I suppose I went through the euphoric stage of culture shock in December and now I am starting to absorb reality.

I don´t have any work from the University profs yet and there is rumor of another strike. I hope this doesn´t happen or I will have to be creative and find other volunteer opportunities. If everything remains on course, I will be assisting Translation III, Composition II, and ICT (Information technology and communications for teachers). I was originally told I would be working in conversation classes, but these classes actually seem better suited for me. Small talk has never been my strong point in life or in the classroom.

On Saturday I tagged along at a meeting for potential translators for a project at the end of June. It is an Evangelist church group organizing local translators for doctors from the US coming to do voluntary work in rural villages outside Iquitos. Karina Garcia, a professor from UNAP, told me about a doctor friend she has coming in late June to work in the villages and asked if I would like to help. I´m not sure if this is the same project, but I would really like to get involved in something outside the city. The villages essentially rely on these kinds of services. The meeting on Saturday was supposed to have an American girl helping assess the translation skills of the applicants, but she was ill. I ended up offering a bit of dialogue about myself for translation. However, I didn´t have much to say as you all know very well that I´m a private and shy person. After the meeting the guys went to play soccer and I watched with some of the classmates I met in December. Two guys that I had just met at the meeting approached me and were kind enough to inform me that they didn´t think I was a Christian because I "don´t speak with a fire in my heart." Ha! Well, it´s entertaining how Iquiteños have no qualms about telling you exactly what they observe and asking you why you are this or that way.

Saturday night proved to be eventful as I finally felt really ill (stomach stuff) and so after having to rush to find the closest bathroom (which didn´t have any toilet paper--to make it even more exciting) Jheam took me to get some medicine. I´m feeling much much better now. He said on Saturday night my face was turning colors from white to yellow to red to green. I was actually proud of my stomach for being somewhat stable for 2 weeks when all of a sudden it hit me. Yesterday I felt better until we ate Chinese food and my stomach almost exploded 10 minutes later. For now I am sticking to trustworthy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.