on the ROAD again!

We FINALLY have a car, in our possession, and I am getting good at driving it here. As one of our friends recommended, you need to learn to drive “always under attack.” This explains it perfectly. There are no lanes, no turn signals used, and these crazy traffic circles that are big enough for three cars wide. Yesterday I was making a left hand turn, and cars crept up on each side of me—we all turned at the same time. While driving here, you have to watch out for the people walking in the street, the kids playing next to the street, the dogs running through the street, the cars passing you on the left and right, the motorcycles that creep up out of nowhere, and the cars that look like they are going to turn in front of you at every intersection, oh, and the cars and trucks and buses that stop without warning. Good thing I got to practice on Sunday when there wasn’t much traffic. Then I had to learn how to really use the 4x4. Driving up our mountain takes me about 30 min, and I need to sit on the edge of my seat for the entire trip so I can see the road in front of me on the incline. There’s one part that’s tough, and I’ve had to back down a couple of times to get up it, but I think maybe this afternoon I’ll master it. Oh, and driving up the mountain after dark: accomplished. We’re really on the move! And we can wear real clothes—hello jeans and tennis shoes, good bye hiking boots!

So now that Chelsea can drive me into town, I’ve started volunteering. Today I went to Fundacíon Donum, a charitable foundation that provides health care and social work services to particularly poor people. I met one of the ENT doctors, and he talked really fast to me for about an hour and a half straight while he saw patients. Usually I understood what he was saying, but sometimes I just nodded my head. There were lots of people with allergies, sinusitis, hearing difficulties, and deviated septa in their noses. Nothing particularly exciting, but these problems are really common here. The doctor said that about 80-90% of people have allergies. That may even be worse than the Ohio Valley! This afternoon I have to go to the public hospital and give them a paper from Ohio State’s med school requesting that I be allowed to volunteer. I guess I’ll find out what schedule the ENTs have there, and I’ll try to put together a reasonable plan for myself between the two places. Being a volunteer medical student/doctor is really hard when I only speak a little Spanish. Thankfully the Latin medical terms are just about the same wherever you go!

Some other updates. The national park people have come up with some emergency funds to get us more electricity and hot water. Perhaps in the next month instead of the next year, we’ll see some changes. Our room is warming up, maybe because of all the things we put in it or else we’re getting more used to the cold. We still need shelves for our clothes and our desk, but slowly we are getting organized. My field work is slow, but that’s to be expected for the dry season. I’ve found two different species, and will continue to search. This week I will set up a schedule with the rangers, and hopefully next week I will begin visiting some of the other sites. I’ve also started an afghan, done in the style of my friend Athena. Mine will be a little different because it is made from purchased yarn because people here don’t have scrap pieces to donate to the cause. Instead I’m buying a few skeins at a time. My first challenge is how to undo the skeins into a ball because I haven’t quite figured out how they are wound yet. I’ve figured out three already, maybe I’ll be a master by the time it is finished. Brad has been invited to join in pick-up soccer games, and we’ve also been invited to a photography club. Last night we stopped by our friend Jose’s house, and he was having boy’s night with fifa soccer video games.

We hope you all are doing well. Please feel free to comment on our blog or send us messages to keep us updated on what’s going on with all of you!