May 29,2009 Monkey Soup

“Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.” -Unknown

Its official, I have been in my community a whole month! The culture shock has been good and bad. I have gone back and forth on the u-curve of the culture shock curve many, many times, sometimes within minutes. For those of you that don’t know about culture shock, let me explain. Bear with me, the explanation will be very elementary because I don’t really remember concrete facts just the basic overview of the theory. Here we go, so, when you are put into a culture that is not the one you grew up in you experience, culture shock (news to everyone I know). There are different stages of culture shock including, honeymoon stage, annoyed stage, humorous stage, sad stage and I think there are more but you get the point. These emotions, of course, falling in a u-curve and surfacing because of the fact that you are dealing with a new culture. Knowing that you are in the different stages is important, just so you know its culture shock and its “normal”. I’m trying to embrace it all!
Oh, before I forget here is my P.O. Box out here in Tena in case you would like to write to me. Also, if you send packages make sure that they are less than 2 lbs., you declare no value and don’t buy insurance for it. But make sure it’s certified. If they ask what is in it just say used books or whatever. All this is because if it’s more than 2 lbs. they will charge us out here and it’s always a ridiculous amount. So the address is:

Lydia Montes
Casilla 15-01-224
Tena-Napo
Ecuador
South America

I have also been had to overcome my first “unknown” illness. Well, unknown to me as an American. Apparently it is nothing new in Pucachicta. They call it mal de ojo or papa china and it’s an eye fungus that is contagious. Well my host mom had it first, at this point I had no idea that it was contagious (my family didn’t think of telling me that it was and I didn’t ask). Your eye gets red and swollen and the whole ordeal lasts a whole week. Well I started noticing that more people in the community started coming down with it but I didn’t think anything about it. On Monday of week 3 I go out to help my family in there chakra with the planting of yucca, which is very interesting and probably the easiest thing to plant and so know I know why they eat so much of it! Well anyways my host dad’s brother-in-law comes to help as well and he also has the dreaded mal the ojo. Well I don’t think much of it, again, although I can’t help but think it looks very painful and not fun. That night I get a bad itch in my eye and I rub it (of course) and the next morning my eye is red. I think that maybe, just maybe, I had something in my eye that scratched my eye and irritated it hence the red eye (because there is no swelling). I let the day go by and the eye is still red and itchy (so I keep rubbing) and then that night the other eye starts hurting (you can only guess now what happens next). So, I have the infection on both my eyes because I didn’t know that whole contagious thing. But do not worry I call the nurse and she gives me the name for eye drops and I go into town and get them and am on my way to healthy eyes again!
Another first was Monday’s dinner of monkey soup. I arrived at the dinner table to encounter a bowl of unknown meat. I think from the comment made by my host dad my expression said a million words. He was like its “carne del monte” (meat from the jungle). I was like “What kind of meat?” He was like mono (monkey). The rest is history! The meat was actually not bad at all, it was no steak by any means, but it was good. I got a limb of some sort in my soup. The soup was mashed banana soup which is not my fav but it was ok.
Then later than night my “best friend” (the rat) showed up in my room again. This time, he made a noisier appearance and it was a closer encounter than before. It jumped down from the ceiling to my desk, which I was sitting at. Then sprang to my bed, luckily it was covered with the mosquito net so it kind of bounced off. I got my host dad to come in and he didn’t get it or kill it and it just ended up squeezing out thru the ceiling boards again. Guess this won’t be its last visit.
I also wanted to thank all of you that have written to me it’s been great receiving mail, both snail mail and e-mails. I do read your comments as well so keep them coming. Miss everyone back home so send me pictures and e-mails on what you’re up to!