Written Wednesday, September 19, 2012

My mom is coming to Moz!! YAY!!!!

Just got the official confirmation last night over the phone! She is coming to visit from Dec 27^th to Jan 11^th! WOO!!!

In a sadder report, another one of my friends is ET’ing. (leaving country early). She decided PC just wasn’t for her, which is a shame. So our group has gone from 31, we had 3 people ET during training, one ET last week, and another this coming weekend. . . It makes me sad that our little “family” is falling apart. But I hope that everyone finds their own path in life, and I’m sure it’s the right decision for each. Miss you all, and am sending good thoughts your way.

My day today was lovely, aside from my silly injury, I am doing very well here. We have a big meeting this week (wed, thurs and possibly Friday) with ICAP and CCS. It is dealing primarily with the Peer Educators (my counterparts) who work in the hospital. These are people who are HIV positive, and are “role models” for those newly diagnosed, or who have questions/concerns about life with HIV. It’s a really cool idea, that helps create sustainable community involvement and development. Right now, the focus is on what these Peer Educators do/do not do. They work one day a week in the hospital, helping people with questions and giving support to those who need it, and one day is to be spent out in the campu searching for people to go get tested, or those who have abandoned their treatments – to get them to return to the hospital.

Today was especially good for me because it gave me a chance to meet everyone all at once – rather than in small spurts at the hospital. There is a different group of Peer Educators for each day of the week, so it can get a bit confusing. Starting next week, I will be spending more time there I think, as well as getting time in with the two CBO’s I am partnered with. Basically I’m about to be very very busy.

I think my favorite part of meetings here is the beginning of them. Each one starts off with a song of some kind, people are encouraged to get up and dance (I am constantly dragged up to the front of the room to dance), clap, and sing along. It’s a great way to break the ice, get people involved and engaged, and it sounds really pretty.

I came away from the meeting today with a very positive feeling. I have more information about what the Peer Educators do, where I can fit in and help, and I got to meet and really talk to a whole new group of people. The fact that I understood everything said in the meeting, and was able to carry on conversations with people makes me very happy. My language is progressing – last week I felt like it was at a stalemate, this week, I feel ok about it. Little by little it’ll get here. Hopefully by the time Mom comes to visit, I’ll be super comfortable.

Speaking of the future visit – when I told people in my organization and the peer educators that she was coming there was a lot of excitement. One man literally was jumping up and down with excitement. So Mom – just prepare yourself for lots of cheek kisses, hugs, face petting, and generally being introduced to a LOT of people. It’s going to be great, and I know you are going to love it here. (same goes for anyone who is planning to visit – if you want to come to my site).

Status of my sprained foot/ankle. . . I think its doing better, the swelling is kind of going  down, and its slowly turning black and blue. . . if the swelling doesn’t go down by Friday I’m going to call the medical office. It doesn’t hurt badly to walk, just a bit uncomfortable. I’m chalking it up as a bad sprain. Here’s hoping its nothing more than that.

No need to cook anything today – we were fed a snack (egg sandwich) and lunch (a chicken curry with rice) so I am quite full and very happy. Although my neighbor did bring over a tasty sweet(ish) treat for me. . . cant remember the name of it to save my life right now, but it has crushed peanuts, some sugar, and crushed mandioca (sort of a sweet root). Its molded into sort of a dry cake thing. I enjoy it a lot, but need to drink water when I eat it because it tends to be a bit dry.

Thank you all for the emails! Love hearing about life at home.

Things continue to be good here - have another meeting tomorrow, I’ll let you know how that goes.

Speak soon –

td