Under the Weather...

Well this week has been rather rough so far...Ive been having some severe gastro-intestinal issues and I will spare you readers the details although among Peace Corps Trainees, discussing bowel movements and bizarre skin rashes is a common conversation starter much like...How bout this weather?....Anyway, Peace Corps is very efficient when it comes to these issues and Nurse Irma had me on antibiotics within a couple hours of getting the results of my bloodwork. Apparently my white blood cell count had gone through the roof so something nasty was going on. Anyway, no worries! I´m on the mend and hoping my appetite will reemerge any day now. On a unrelated note, I just watched a kayaking video that Jamie made and I just have to say I have the most awesome little bro in the world. Moving on, over the past few days we have traveled to Chinameca where a married couple are serving as volunteers to talk to them and get a feel for what life is like on site....They were really open, generous people that answered all our questions and gave us a look into a day in their lives. Everyone says "Peace Corps is the hardest job you'll ever love." This definately rings more true with each passing day as we continue to sink into our environment and our roles here. In regards to our work....we´ve been told twice now that regarding the El Salvadorans we are here to work with, ¨They don´t want to know what we know until they know that we know what they know." In summary, we have to live within the community and understand/appreciate the needs, values, way of life etc. before we can earn the confianza of the people and begin to work with them. So that is our first objective. I´m off to lunch...Hope all of you are doing well! Thank you for supporting me on this journey! XO Kali