12 de Febrero, 2008

Its been a busy week or so and I'm very thankful for having something to do.
Superbowl with some friends was fun, but as always, I think I enjoyed being able to eat different food like hambugers and ice cream sundaes, more than anything else. And of course it was great to see some friends that I haven't seen from training.
Superbowl was followed by a few days in a friends community helping build an improved stove for a family. These stoves are made of the traditional mud mix that they seem to use to build everything here. But our design uses bricks and a few pieces of bent iron rebar for support. And the key difference is the chimney to funnel smoke out of the lungs of the women that stand over the stove all day and up into the sky and the special ramp built inside to use less firewood that is quickly being depleted in this country without much reforestation.
The stove building was a great learning experience for me. See pictures below of Maritza making a chicken for examples of how the stove looks.
As soon as I was back from these activities I got busy planning meetings with my counterparts to start our gardens with the womens groups and attending "controls" with the local nurse. This is a monthly event where she weighs children under 2 (using donated balance-like scales where children are hung in a sack) to track their growth and gives vaccinations and vitamins to pregnant and lactating women. I'm tagging along to meet the women in the groups (which helps me meet more of the community) and prepare to give nutrition presentations next month.
While attending one of these events, I got word of another house that is vacant. After looking at the cute, recently built house, complete with powerful electricity, glass windows, water, and a ceiling, I fell in love and hope to be moving into this place by March.
So along with work picking up, I'm busy getting organized for my move. Which requires logistics like bargaining for furniture so that I don't get too screwed on the gringo price and getting mattresses loaded onto an old school bus and trucked 2 hours to my house.
Also I have succeeded in finding a used bike and am now mobile, which is a wonderful feeling, to be able to whiz to town whenever I want.
My stomach problems have left and my perforated ear membrane has healed and been cleared by the doctor. So I'm on my way back from Managua today and heading back to dig into some "real" work.
And after a 2 week hiatus from running because of my illnesses, I'm back training again for the half-marathon in March. Amazingly I reached another goal this week and ran for a complete hour, so I am building faith that I'll make it to my mark by March 15th.
All for now, take care folks.