April 15, 2002

Quick update. I have been so busy lately with Earth Day activities, my final theatre performance with the Girls Exchange, and summer plans, that the universe decided it was time to slow me down. Saturday, right before leaving to catch a bush taxi (i.e. Toyota minivan) back to my village with 20 bags of food, I twisted my foot going down the stairs. In slow motion, my left foot twisted under, a few large POPS echoed down the stairwell, and the pain shot straight to my head. I hopped down three floors to the guard at the Transit House (where I was staying), who called our PC doctor. I was sure it was broken. Within thirty minutes, the pain had escalated, and I was moaning and shaking my other leg to distract myself. Luckily, another volunteer came back to the House, and he chipped ice from the freezer. I downed two painkillers, and waited forever (30 min. for them to get there). The PC doctor came, the assistant nurse, the driver, and they rushed me to the hospital where an Egyptian surgeon was waiting to examine it. Our doctor had given me 2 Vicadent, which is a narcotic they last gave me when I had my wisdom teeth removed. Within an hour I was sleepy and without pain.

At the hospital, the surgeon probed around with his hands, and then they took an x-ray of my foot with no protective shield for my body (poor x-ray technician probably has cancer by now). Our doctor proclaimed she thought it was fractured, and then the surgeon said it was just a bad sprain. The x-ray showed that one of my foot bones had been shoved up against another, a jamming of two small bones. There was bruising, and intense pain in the side of my foot. By the afternoon, I was almost asleep from the drugs through the night. Narcotics make you feel like you are in a coma where you are not tired enough to sleep or respond to conversations, but you can hear everything going on around you. I was a zombie lying on the sofa at the Transit House with my foot elevated for 2 days.

I rushed around organizing (from the sofa) the theatre piece the next day...I would send 2 other Peace Corps volunteers to facilitate the practice before, during, and after the show. One of them would also water my plants and feed my poor cats who had been without food for 24 hours. As 3 o’clock ticked around on Sunday, I imagined them starting the piece, and then wondered whether it was a success. Sunday night, the minivan pulled up with the Praia girls. They said it was a resounding success, and that it was much, much better than their first performance. I was really happy for them, but also immediately overwhelmed with sadness that I had missed their final performance. Erin, the volunteer who had taped the entire thing with my video camera, had gotten out of the van earlier in the city. I would not be seeing the video for another 24 hours or so. It was like I had given birth and everyone had seen my baby but me.

Today, I am at the Peace Corps office, and I have had lots of people congratulate me on the success of the theatre performance – word spreads fast. The Country Director of Peace Corps was at my performance, as well as people from my village, and mangers from the town hall located on the coast. The performance was one that addressed drugs in the valley, and they supposedly mentioned my name frequently, saying that I had taught them a lot. Everyone was really impressed with the maturity of all of the girls involved. At my suggestion, they did a question and answer section where they asked people to list drugs in the valley, the prize being a candy. The Director’s young son said ‘GROGO!’, which is the moonshine liquor they make. Everyone in the valley did agree that it is a drug that causes many problems.

I cannot wait to get back and see what my neighbors say about the performance. Although I was not there, I hope that they will have gained more trust in me to lead projects in the near future. What Peace Corps teaches you is that when people trust you, it is much easier to accomplish great things. It has taken almost a year, but I think that the coming months will be much more productive on many levels. I am setting the groundwork now for ensuing projects that will bring about change in both small and large ways. This summer, I am planning a 2-week girls empowerment camp with activities to improve their self-confidence and team building skills. I will be using the rural girls that participated in the Girls Exchange as leaders, in hopes that they can lead the camp next summer, even if I am not around. If any of you have good group activities for youth that build life skills, please, attempt to explain them over email or let me know of a book with such exercises. Although I was in Girls Scouts for ten years, my memory is failing me on the details of all those educational activities we did disguised as ‘games’.

p.s. I just found out I received a scholarship to attend the 2002 AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain the 2nd week in July!