update

Hi everyone! So did you check out my pictures? I posted some online and Ill be sending more soon of my face soon after the accident. Wild contraption they had me hooked up to. It was called a 24 hour holter . I had to wear it a full day and write down everything I did. If I had any pain (which I didn’t) I was to press a button. What a pain. After a day they took it off and boy did that tape hurt coming off. I had some marks from that too!
To sum up all my tests…..They basically checked for everything – blood, heart, brain, etc. The only things that came up were low iron and high cholesterol. My blood pressure continued to be about 90/60 but they said that was fine. The iron can definitely cause fainting and combined with lack of sleep and heat…well you know what happened. The high cholesterol is just an extra bonus. Really I think its cos Im not used to eating so much fried food. And the oil they use hear is sometimes animal fat. Very heart healthy! Ive also been eating eggs a lot for breakfast. Now im back to cereal (which I found in manila and bought 5 boxes!) and oatmeal every morning. Mama Zonia has been great too. I came back last Saturday and told everyone what happened and my new diet, etc. She has been so great (like always). She has been cooking grilled fish, lots of fruit and vegetables. I couldn’t be luckier. She is always so accommodating. Its still been a little hard because since my accident everyone has decided that I have become thin here and am too skinny and need to eat more sugar and fats. Not gonna happen. Don’t worry, Im fine and eating plenty.
Another thing, I did get cleared to go home last week on Wednesday. Instead of heading back to ifugao I went to zambales to visit my friend caty. She has a great site. It’s a small town like lamut yet she has fast internet, photo developing, and a restaurant! And she is about 20 minutes ride from the beach. Her job assignment seems cool (though im sure not without problems too). She works at a home for street kids. They live there and go to school there. They house about 60 kids. It seemed to me to be a really close community. I don’t get that here at the school. We have 1006 students and im more or less confined to the sped class. The other kids don’t really know me or know why I am here. Summer is coming up and I have been thinking a lot about what I can do to be productive and keep busy. Ill be coming home for two weeks and I am going on a scuba trip with adam in a couple of weeks. But for the rest of it, Id like to get some work done. The library project is coming along. We are going to receive a budget to repair a large room for it. Now we just need estimates on the tables, chairs, and shelves. There is another volunteer close by who is also doing a library project. I hope to go visit her site and see what progress she has made and share ideas. Apart from the library, I would like to plan some workshops for next year to do with the teachers. I am thinking empathy training, teaching strategies for ESL, and classroom management. One idea I had was to have a short meeting with the teachers here about my class and my students. Maybe also about how to recognize learning disorders. Then I hope to go around to all the classes and talk to them about SPED and the children and answer any questions they may have. I saw one student teasing one of my pupils the other day and realized that they have no idea about them. While I was in manila, we had a short conference at the pc office about hiv/aids. Its one of our global initiatives and they want me to start working on related projects in my region. So maybe I will be busy after all. Im actually looking forward to summer so I can come to my class in the morning and have a quiet “office” to work with no interruptions.
I started to learn how to knit the other day. Grandma sent me a book and I have been trying for weeks to get it down. I only mastered “casting on”. I took my yarn to school yesterday afternoon and Liza showed me one of the basic stitches. I spent all last night practicing and I think I have enough for a Barbie sized scarf.
Not much else going on. Like I said, Ill be going over easter week on a trip with adam. We are going to Coron, Palawan to dive and maybe even get our advanced certification. I am so excited. I haven’t been on a real vacation here. Just short ones where we moved around a lot. This time well be staying in the same place and be able to just relax and enjoy it. And well be taking an overnight boat! First time! I still haven’t flown since ive been here but the tickets are really expensive.
Check out my pictures and ill send some more later. Miss you all
Love
eva