Greetings everyone. Some of you may be wondering... what do new friends, amoebas, and the magic of Harry Potter have in common? They are all things that I, for better or worse, have experienced here in Lokossa. The first and maybe even the second items might seem likely occurences for a traveller on a foreign continent, and as for the last, well, if you know me well enough it's not all that surprising.
Getting back to classes after the break looked to be promissing as I was getting more comfortable in my role as a teacher, getting to know the town a little more, establising a routine and in general feeling more at home with the culture, climate and life in general. However, during the first week, just as I was celebrating the renewed functionality of my once-infected foot, I ran into another foe of microbial proportions. I don't know exactly what the source of the illnes was,(contaminated food, water, etc.), but the culprit was likely an amoeba of some kind. After being sick for more than a day so it was suggested I take something a little stronger than Imodium or Gravol, because general experience here suggests it is usually and amoeba that causes stomach troubles like I was experiencing. At this point I would like to dispense a little traveler's advice: if your travel doctor recomends you bring a comprehensive First Aid kit including persription anti-diarhea medication, please listen to him/her. It turns out they had the same medication here ready to go because that is what they know works, but I was happy I had my own on hand for when I needed it, and I didn't have to buy any or use someone else's. In any case, I was back in good health soon enough, and I learned that while amoebas may be fun to illustrate as a peice of highschool science class homework, they are not so fun to have in your stomach. (And if I have not managed to convince you of this, please feel free to contact Taylor James Howard through my facebook page, and he can give you the details of his encounter with an amoeba in South America).
There is a silver lining in all of this however, which brings us back to the first item in this blog title: new friends. One you have already heard about, he is the vet mentioned who I went to visit some of the smaller vilages with on his veteranary calls. He has since taken me on more village visits, and were it not for him I would never have known there is an air-conditioned restaurant in Lokossa. He came to stop by while I was sick, and paid particular attention to making sure I continued with the full course of my medication. And after seeing him force a tablet down the throat of a sick goat, I was familiar with his persistence and determination to medicate anything or anyone who needed it, and I dutifully swallowed every nasty-tasting tablet as perscribed.
The other person who came to visit while I was "indisponible", was Ellen. Her son is in one of my classes, and her husband is the founder of one of the two schools I work at. He is from Benin, but Ellen herself is from the Philipines. They are both part of the Unification Church, and they met through an arranged marriage. I met Ellen because she also teaches English at "Les élite", and she likes to sit in on my classes. When I was sick she brought me bananas and bottle water - Possotomé, the local brand - and I have since visited with each other a number of times. We have had some really great conversations, and I learned much about her church, her life, and the deication she and her husband have to living life to help others. I feel lucky to have found a friend in her, and was only too happy to introduce her to Bill and Julie, knowing all of them would enjoy the company and the chance to speak English.
I also went to visit one of the English teachers from the public school I teach at. I was surprised when Esther told me at the end of my visit that she thought I would refuse her invitation. On the contrary I was delighted to get to know a little better one of the few women I work with, and meet her family and see what life is like at her home.
As for Harry Potter, I would just like to say that it was completely involentary on my part. Nonetheless, I was delighted when I got a package in the mail from my mom which contained the recently widely-release "Tales of Beedle the Bard". If you have no idea what that is you will have to google it yourself because I dont have the time to explain now. In any case, it was great to read some fun fabels by JRK, and I particulary enjoyed the "commentary", where she continued to promote her values of peace and tolerence, and gets a chance to bite back at all her critics and religious zealots who wanted her books thrown from libraries. Not to mention that it was fabulous just to read something in the English language writen by a competent author. It was practically like magic the way forgotten vocabulary seemed to tumble back into my head, which had been slightly starved of literature having only the ESL texts used in the schools for English reading material!
Thats all, time's up!
Carla
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