27.9.11

dearest people who care about me,

so i have a funny story. it was one of those stories that, as it was unfolding, i wanted to laugh just thinking about retelling it. so here it goes, my experience at the opthamologist:

sunday night i'm watching tv at home alone (the guate rents went to church) and my right eye gets real itchy. so what do i do? i itch it of course. and like it should, my contact lense bobbles out of place. now, as a background note, i have worn contacts since i was 12 years old. and as a rule, when i itch my eyes and my contacts go all crazy they always fall back into their propper place after about an hour at worst.

so there i am two hours later ready for bed with said contact still stuck somewhere in my eye. oh well, i'm not worried. surley it will fall out when i sleep.

monday morning: eye is bloodshot and hurting above my tearduct. shoot. that contact is still in there. slight freak out. this has never happened before. wash out my eye with water (recommendation of mama boss). okay, so i go to work as normal. by noon it's still in there somewhere. alright, suck it up and call Peace Corps medical. 'ummmm yyeeaahh, so this is kind of stupid but my contact is stuck somewhere in my eye'. no problem, appointment at 5:00 in Xela. whew.

5:00 p.m. Torre Professional, Xela: Watching Alice in Wonderland waiting for the doc to see me. and it fits, i feel sort of like alice in this situation.

5:30, Samantha Boss, i get up and am led into an office where i am met by a very young and rather attractive doctor. just my bad luck, im at the doctor for the stupidest thing ever and he has to be. i go to shake his and and my purse hits his desk, knocking off his glass model of the human eye. thank god it didn't break, but there i am, turning super red and apologizing. of course sam.

'so what seems to be the problem?'. oh god. i have a contact lodged in my eyeball somewhere.
'alright, we'll let's see what we can do about that'.

commence exam of him folding up my eyelid and sticking a swab in there. cringe. it was aweful.

after 20 minutes of probing around, no luck. he called in another doctor for a second opinion.

nada.

he tries to make me feel better by saying that this happens all the time and that my eye was so irriated that it felt like the lense was still in there. i'm red again. are you kidding me?

worst of all? i have a follow up appointment in a week.

worst than that? i needed to feel better so i walked over to Wendy's for a frosty. and would you believe there was no chocolate. a vanilla frosty? people, don't waste your money.

moral of the story? too many to count.

love,

sam

18.9.11

Almolonga`s central park, Independence day festivities...





Zunil traje...



Almolonga traje...




Happy Guatemalan Independence Day! 190 years and going strong...










11.9.11

Today, September 11th, which holds so much emotion for me as an American, also holds emotion for me as an American living in Guatemala. Today is election day here, it's the culmination of months of campaigning and debate. The mayoral races are the most contentious and in Almolonga passions run high between the three parties vying for power. Peace Corps asked me to leave my site for the weekend as a preemptive precaution, so I'm staying with a fellow PC volunteer about 45 minutes away until Tuesday when all settles down.

Last night I was thinking about how much has (and hasn't) changed in the past ten years. Thought I'd share what was on my mind:

"Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that forever changed our world. 10 years. Time plays such tricks on us, doesn't it? Saddness passes, but not without its scars. And we're weak after all. Delicate flesh that feels. Or maybe we're delicate because we feel. Whether weak or strong-here we are, all connected. Our passions, no matter how polarized, are what make us human. Our capacity for good and evil, is what makes us human. Our hurt, is what make us human.

But it is our ability to forgive, to be compassionate, to choose to rise above guns, tanks, bombs, planes--that, that is what would make us good.

And that is my hope for our world. That each person, each small human, would choose goodness over hurt. "