Fungus Face

“Injection?” asks Kalli, pointing to her shoulder.
“No,” replies the doctor, extending her index finger towards her posterior “Inyección.”

Kalli and I laugh, me noticably harder. It won’t be me dropping my pants for the next 4 days for a penicillin injection. Poor Kalli. Oh, but now it is my turn to learn why I’ve had to see my new surroundings out of just my right eye for the last few days. I describe my syptoms and the doctor takes a look. I walk out with an arsenal of eye drops only to return a few days later with a mystery rash on my face, neck, and hands.

Again a flashight inspection. We discuss itching. I am diagnosed with something that starts with an m and ends with many syllabols. I make a confused face and turn my head slightly. The doctor says it is “un hongo.” I am given a $10 tube of anti-fungal cream and cotton candy-colored pills. My fellow trainees now refer to me in jest as fungus face or just hongo for short. The cream is amazing because it dries the rash up in about 2 days, but each day a new crop of the fungus rash keeps popping up. I’m not sure if that’s okay, but I have lots of cream left still, so I am thinking it will soon get it under control.

My host family is a trip, and there are always good smells coming from the kitchen. Unlike many of my fellow trainees, fruits, vegetables, and non-fried foods grace my plate daily. I accompanied my host mom to pick papaya and mango from the trees in my grandma’s yard a few days ago, and the mangos are now ripe. And wonderful.

A couple nights ago the kitchen was a different story. I went to get some water from the refrigerator because I was dehydrated because I sweat about 1 liter of water daily (only a slight exageration), and when I did a 4 inch long grasshopper jumped off of the fridge onto my skirt. I shamefully shrieked like a little girl. My nephew came running to check it out and was followed by my host mom. Upon inspection of the grasshopper my host mom grabbed the insect and toasted it in her fingers over the stove burner until it browned. Then she tossed it onto the porch “for the chickens.”

Showers are a treat here. My host mom and Spanish teacher were mortified when I told them that I only showered every other day in Ohio. They recommended that I shower 3-4 times per DAY here. My face must have conveyed my thoughts before any words left my mouth, and they assured me that theirs was the hygiene that I should adopt. Despite their teachings I have only upped my shower frequency to once daily (twice only in extreme cases). I am still mastering the skills needed for a bucket shower and getting over my weariness of bathing in a latrine. I think I smell like poo when I finish my bucket shower, but atleast I am refreshed and lightly less smelly.

Tech classes are amazing. I got shifted to the Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) trainging group from the conservation group. Apparently their was a bit of a mix up, but I am happy with the results. The switch means more manual labor in rural agrarian-based communities. And some amazing trainers teaching lots of hands-on organic production techniques. The training is intense, but good. One of the trainers is an organic chicken farmer here, but he seems to have his hand in everything agriculture. Language classes are decent, but I feel like I get more out of hanging out with my host family and neighbors. We are the 5th (I think) training group to be hosted in this small community (pop. 1500-2000) an hour from Panama City. I have asked a few people here what they think about having 30+ gringos living here. Their responses vary from feeling honored because Peace Corps selected them to share their cutlure, food, etc. to humored because gringos say funny things are have strange habits to frustrated (mostly children) because some kids give up their rooms for the gringos living with them. I feel very welcomed, and I am obviously very entertained.

Monday is my host nephew’s birthday, and I am off to the super to buy ingredients for a cake (my host family has a working oven… amazing!).

Hasta pronto!