Amoebas

Another week has passed and you must wonder what I've been up to. Well, for those of you not on Facebook with me, too, I've been awfully sick with AMOEBAS.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5154250_amoebic-dysentery-disease.html

Gross, huh? Went to the Bolivian ER on Thursday night, a week ago now, got an IV which hung directly above my head in a scary, twisty metal thing. Friday went and had a bunch of tests, including this impatient nurse stabbing me:

  Not sure how long I've had 'em, but I do now know they're all dead and gone after a few days of antibiotics and drinking nasty electrolyte-replenishing "juice" packs. (After which I was told I could have drank 3 Powerades for every one of those most-nasty-things-I've-ever-consumed-packs).
I'm feeling a lot better now, just really tired and easily tuckered out. One more visit (hopefully) to the doctor tonight and hopefully she'll tell me I'm all set to enjoy Canadian Thanksgiving on Saturday. (I've been eating lots of rice and soup and Jello and crackers. For a week straight. Boring!) Today I got to have soy-meat with CHEESE on my rice! With toast! Woo! Exciting.

I also get to go pick up my visa from Immigration this afternoon. After paying the fines for being illegal, I will once again be legal for a month more, through a "courtesy visa". And hopefully within this time I'll get my real visa that we applied for before I even arrived to Bolivia! (We shouldn't have had to pay any fines, because it's the government/embassy's fault that I'm even illegal in the first place. They shouldn't be taking this long to put a friggin stamp on a piece of paper! Three months!)

Tomorrow will be my first day back working in a week, but I'm not working at Vivo. Tomorrow is another Sustainable Bolivia volunteer work day, and this time it will be at Cochabamba's Natural History Museum. We'll be building a frog pond and habitat out back, as they are doing research on frogs from La Paz that live completely under water in Lake Titicaca and why they are dying out. They haven't been able to successfully replicate the conditions in Lake Titicaca elsewhere, to simulate reproduction, but we're going to build a habitat for the frogs they do have left and to teach locals (kids mostly, in Cochabamba) about the importance of keeping Bolivia's scarce water sources clean and not hunting the frogs for superstitious "medical" purposes.

Here is a cute picture of a cute puppy that we currently have at Sustainable Bolivia. We are looking for a home for her. Also, look at me in a hammock! In warm weather! 

And here is a cute picture of my cute little kitty, Pepito. With the scarf he loves so much. (He drags it around like a toddler with a blanky. Weird? Cute.)