Veronica came to stay in my new house with me for a bit, and it was a wonderful visit from an old friend, but also a good enlightening time. It reminded me of things that I have just become accustomed to and no longer see as strange. At some point in time I will have to post "Veronica's list of 'that is not normal'", but for now I will just mention a few. Things like chickens walking through your house at random, bathing in an area with a tarantula that you refuse to kill (look back to the rescued by a 7year old post and see how I have progressed :), washing my clothes on a rock in the river next to all the other ladies in the village, running out of food before going to the market so picking random things that grow in your yard you didn't plant but actually are good food, etc. She also told me my K'ekchi is getting good which made me feel great, but then I remembered she had never heard K'ekchi before that so anything probably would have sounded great. Anyway she was amused with the chickens and I was a bit annoyed with them always being at my house when I don't own chickens, so here is a picture of my new house and "my" chickens.
So I feel like Belize is not a good place for me when it comes to random health things. I love it here, but my skin really does not. So for the past three weeks I have been going through this weird allergic reaction that we couldn't quite figure out and I was getting a bit tired of waking up with eyes swollen nearly shut. So today (on my birthday) I left my house at 9am on the bus to make it to my 2:30pm doctors appointment. I was only two minutes late so I felt pretty successful about that. Thankfully the doctor figured out what is wrong with me, so it wasn't a completely wasted 5.5 hours on the bus:) Apparently mango trees and cashew trees are closely related to poison ivy, and if you have known me for any length of time you have probably seen me for weeks (if not months at a time) with some ridiculous poison ivy rash. So apparently I am not longer allowed to pick my own mangoes out of the trees in my yard. I can eat them, but only after someone cleans them and peels them for me. At least I can still eat them. They are all coming ripe right about now and they taste amazing. So weird skin problem number who knows what will hopefully be resolved soon :)
(I can't figure out how to rotate the picture so just use your neck and tilt your head a bit :))I received a birthday card yesterday. One of those fun musical cards. I did not think about it when I brought it back to the village and opened it, but I got an amazing response. The kids love it, and constantly want to see "the radio" and listen to the song. There is a picture of my host-niece Anaya listening to it. It was amazing she came running to my house naked after her bath wanting to hear it and I told her as best I could in K'ekchi that she couldn't listen to it until she put on clothes, so she was back fully dressed (with shoes!) in under 5 minutes. I was impressed. I may soon hate the limbo song that it plays after hearing it non-stop for 20 minutes or so, but I loved seeing their response to it. Something that seemed so simple, but provides hours (literally) of entertainment and amazement.
Alright so dear Tracy, my fellow PCV and well loved pal, was planning to visit me in my village for my birthday. I wasn't completely sure she was coming, but when I found out I wasn't going to be there I let her know. So she decided to join me on the adventure up north to the doctor. She made me the most amazing chocolate cake with peanut butter and chocolate icing and lugged it through 7 hours of bus trips to get it here to Belize city. When I got on the bus with her a few hours into her trip she was contemplating singing happy birthday too me with the people on the bus, but thankfully reserved herself a bit. Needless to say cakes don't withstand heat very well, especially on buses. The cake tasted amazing, but may have been a little melty. I didn't mind, I enjoyed it very much with the forks we begged from the concession stand lady in the Dangriga bus station. It just reminds me of the great friends I have made here that would take a 7 hour bus ride, holding a quickly melting cake, on a very uncomfortable retired school bus, in the heat just so I don't spend my birthday alone. It was a good day :)
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