10 Things I Miss (other
than family, friends and the English Language):
1) Subs from Subway.
Really just cold turkey sandwiches in general. There is no cold deli
meat (no turkey at all) or vegetables here that you can eat raw.
2) Reality TV and Talk
Shows
3) Smoothies. No
blenders here.
4) Spin Classes and
kickboxing
5) Refridgeration
6) Sunday “soul”
Mass in Buffalo
7) Hulu and Netflix
8) Watching NFL, NBA,
NHL and college basketball games
9) Skiing
10) Urban Outfitters,
GAP, Express and Victoria's Secret (I can't stand shopping in the
unorganized, cramped Forever 21 stores but at this point I even miss
Forever 21 and their cheap accessories and camis)
11/14/2013
Now that I am moved
out (for the most part) of my apartment and into a safe place, I can
now talk about the issues I have been having living in my apartment.
I have had issues with harassment and what the Peace Corps calls
“stalking” (I have not been followed, that I know of, but the
same men keep coming to my apartment trying to get in) for about a
month and a half. Most nights, they would bang on my windows and then
it became my door, yelling things that they want to do in English (
I'll spare the details, I'm sure you can figure out what I'm talking
about). I am on the first floor, so this made me extremely
uncomfortable but when I swore into the Peace Corps, I promised to
serve whatever village they placed me and in hardship. So, I thought
this is hardship, these men are just part of serving in a third world
country. So I would ignore them and just put my headphones in to
drown out their voices. But then it soon escalated to loud large
brawls and arrests. By this time, it was hard to sleep at night,
because I was afraid that they would break through my windows (one
night the men resorted to throwing rocks at my windows). I quickly
emailed Peace Corps, who immediately got on the telephone and told my
landlord that the bars I was supposed to have on my windows the first
day I Moved in were not optional and they need to be put on now. The
next day I had bars. The Country Director and Safety and Security
Director was forwarded my email and within a day I was on the phone
with both of them. They had a meeting about my situation and decided
that it was not safe for me to live there anymore, even with the
newly added bars. I spent a couple days with my site mates and then
they made the decision to move me into a guest house until a new
apartment is found. The guest house is great and the people that run
it are fantastic. I have a hot shower, a bed with a real mattress,
breakfast served to me every morning (fresh fruit included). The
first night I stayed there, there was a convention for missionaries
and I fell asleep to the sounds of them playing guitars and singing,
so much better than the yelling I am used to. It actually brought me
to tears. The people are so nice too. At breakfast a couple of them
came over to eat and talk with me. Most of them are from the US, but
there is a couple from Canada. I talked about Tim Hortons and Buffalo
with them. We both share a love for the Timbits. The husband also
just started flying ultralight planes and was telling me about how he
is going for his sport pilot license and wanted to start learning to
fly helicopters as well. I felt at that moment that my Uncle Tim was
there with me, watching over me and keeping me safe. =) I am so much
more comfortable now and I am looking forward to getting a new
apartment. So glad that, that whole ordeal is over. Peace Corps has
been so wonderful and on the ball once they found out about my
situation. I am so thankful for all the personnel that has called me
4-5 time a day seeing how I am and all the support they have offered
to me. I am also thankful for the staff from Peace Corps Headquarters
in Washington DC that has called to apologize and offer their
support. Truly a wonderful community of people!
11/15/2013
Yesterday afternoon, I
went to see a possible new apartment. It is on the third floor and
has two doors, including a steel safety door on the outside that has
no handle. It can only be opened by a special key that I will have.
It has a small balcony and the bedroom/living room has hard wood
floors. The kitchen comes equipt with a sink. That is it, no cabinets
or counter tops, but my counterpart says the handy man can do
something about that. It also has a toilet (that works!!), heat and a
shower with a hot water box! It is smaller than my old apartment, but
I like it a lot! Peace Corps comes to check it out on Monday to see
if it is up to PC standards which I'm pretty sure it is, since the
one I used to live in somehow passed. It is also closer to my work
and right behind Will's apartment. Fingers are crossed I can move in
sometime next week!
Today, I received a
ton of messages from school doctors who came to me training on
Prevention of Non-communicable diseases. About 15 school doctors and
nurses are interested in working with me to come up with a Health
Class Curriculum that they can teach to kids ages 10-17 in the
schools. I am so excited about this!
On Wednesday, I had a
great English Class with the community members at the Future and
Child Adolescent Center. I taught them about the present continuous
tense and adjectives to describe people. I gave them magazine
pictures and had them write sentences describing the people and talk
about what they were doing in the pictures. I then had them stand up
and tell the rest of the class. They really enjoyed the pictures and
looking up words in their dictionary to describe different details of
the clothes. At the end of the class they asked if they could keep
the pictures and were so excited when I said of course they could. I
am currently working on making a grammar book for them, with all the
grammar rules (so many!). I now know so much about the English
Language. I had no idea about the names of all the different tenses
and kind of words. Every Wednesday Will comes to the Health
Department to help me with work, since he has no afternoon classes on
Wednesdays. We are going to start teaching English classes at the
Central Hospital for the doctors and nurses. We are going to split it
up, where I will teach the beginner group and he will teach the more
advanced, since he is a TEFL volunteer and an English professor at
the Teachers' College here. We came up with the tentative lessons for
the first 5 weeks of classes. We will probably start them mid
December.
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