Seeing as I am over a year and a half into this gig it was long
overdue but this weekend my gastrointestinal system was rocked by a
wicked case of food poisoning and I am still recovering. I was
planning on posting on Sunday but the food I ate that day had other
plans. I'm still not quite sure what it was. I had the usual to'na'i
with my Samoan family and then went home to work on some of my side
projects. A few hours later I wanted a snack so I made a couple
pieces of french toast. I know, it's a weird snack but I wanted
something sweet and the stores near my house are all closed because
2:00pm Sunday is National nap time. PIus wasn't going to just eat
spoonfuls of powdered sugar, the only sweet thing I had in my house,
so french toast was the solution. Then a few hours after that, the
nightmare began.
At first it was just the usual runny stuff (I told you to stop
eating), which in all reality is not all that uncommon. When I eat
somewhere other than my kitchen on occasion I have a loose duce or
two. Nothing that would be considered diarrhea but just different
enough to know food storage and prep wasn't up to US standards. Then
my stomach started to cramp up and any resemblance of solid matter
exiting the back door disappeared. After a few hours of this I
finally managed to throw up which, at the time was painful but
immediately afterwards was a huge relief, temporarily of course. I
spiked a temp and got the chills to top it all off and by the time
11:00pm rolled around I have expelled more fluid from my body than I
think I take in, in three days time.
I made it through the night and though I was not hungry at all
yesterday or today and have been quite tired I am on the road to
recovery. Now if you are still hungry, go ahead and finish eating,
I'l be moving on to more palatable topics.
Funny thing happened late last week, I kicked a dog in the throat. I
know, your first reaction is probably, "Oh my gosh! That's
horrible!". I would have thought so too, two years ago. But it is
important to remember there are dogs and then there are maile. Maile
are Samoan dogs, and unless they are yours they are usually mean
SOBs. Don't get me wrong, I try to avoid harming a dog whenever
possible, but when I am on my bike anything goes. This is where is
gets a bit funny, the dog is barking an chasing my while I am on my
bike. Unlucky for him, I have my tennis shoes on. I wait until he
got really close and I kick at him. Usually I kick down and catch
them on the head or snout and they back off, what was funny about this
time was his snout must have been tilted just right because I caught
him in the throat. So he goes from this mean, growling, barking dog
to this dejected thing making coughing and sputtering sounds. The
abrupt change was hysterical! Those of you at home may not appreciate
the story fully, but trust me, the volunteers I have told thought it
was just as funny.
On the job front I am making small steps forward with developing this
community assessment and planning unit. It is going to be very
difficult moving forward because of the political maneuvering that has
to be done with certain agencies. Some agencies can be very
territorial and despite the fact that you are trying to work with them
and towards the same overall goals. It could have something to do
with the fact that some of these lead agencies are doing little to
nothing and if someone comes in to "help", more often than not they
will be doing more than those who are supposed to be the biggest
players in their field.
I am also struggling with the missing link in this plan, the way the
Red Cross is going to help the communities carry out their plans to
reduce their vulnerability and increase their capacity in the areas of
health and disaster preparedness/risk reduction. This has not been
addressed and at the current time there are no plans on the table to
start the search. I am hoping it starts soon. I don't plan to hold
up our work and the development of this unit and program but with out
this answer the CAP program won't be much different than a work of
art. It will take a lot of time and effort to complete and it will
sit on a shelf for people to look at. In that case I better find some
pretty binders to put it in! I don't mean to sound negative, I am
sure that a solution will be found but it would help me out a whole
lot to have it now instead of later. But, wishing for what I can't
have is neither constructive nor productive so enough with that.
Whitney is coming in officially a week! We will both have work to do,
which we talked about today. It is good in the sense that the other
will not feel guilty about having to work, or having the other put off
or cram too much work into a smaller period of time. Don't you worry,
we will find time to enjoy each other's company and we won't spend the
whole time working. What I am thinking about doing is working about 9
to 3 most days. She can come to the office and work from there using
the internet. We can take an hour for lunch and leave early so we
have some time to go do things around town. Of course we will have
the weekends and I am going to take the Friday before she leave off
for a three day weekend and we have a public holiday this monday that
I will work and then take Wednesday off (the day she gets here). So
really I will only be working half the days she is here and those days
will be short ones. I think it's a pretty good plan. Now I just have
to get as much done as possible to get ahead of the curve!
Speaking of that, back to work I go. With regards to the pictures, I
am getting settled in my new office area, once that is done I will
take the pics and put them up.
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