Tuesday, October 12, 2004

In America again

When I got into DC, my mother and Brenna met me at the airport - that was a godsend. Peace Corps DC usually makes ambultory volunteers find their own way to the hotel, which I would NOT have been capable of by any means. My mother had flown down from Vermont, and Brenna lives in DC, with her husband Chuck and several cats of their own. Pets aren't allowed in the Peace Corps hotel (Peace Corps keeps a couple of hotel floors available just for volunteers who have been med evac'd or who have been evacuated from their countries for one reason or another), so Brenna and Chuck had very kindly offered to house and care for Zoe while I was in DC. Brenna drove us to their house first and I dropped off Zoe and a duffel bag that I didn't need anything in (it had presents and such-like), and then she drove us both to the PC hotel. My mom had gotten a room there on the same floor for a week or so.

It was all big time culture shock - I went to check into the hotel, and they gave me a room on the sixth or seventh floor. I was instantly aghast and indignent, and demanded to know if they had an elevator, because I was sick and couldn't possibly climb the stairs.

Oddly enough, they had an elevator - just like every other hotel in DC, I'm sure. The whole thing was such an overload for me - stores were impossible, too much stuff and people; the medical process started immediately, and I was sucked into that; the other volunteer sharing my room (PC puts volunteers up two or three to a room) was nice enough, but very young and had already immersed herself throughly in American culture. There are no words to describe how terribly strange it all was after coming out of Armenia. Just throwing the toilet paper into the toilet (rather than into a toilet paper bucket) was something I had to keep reminding myself to do. And all the people speaking English, and the other evacuated volunteers going shopping, and the horror of the stores - several times when I was with my mother I had to just tell her that I needed to leave, it was just so much all at once. Plus dealing with jet lag, of course - my body clock was on a totally different schedule, and I remember getting and wandering the halls in the wee hours of the night when I couldn't sleep.

In addition, medical was testing to see if I had giardia - which means doing stool samples, always a lovely procedure. Even more so after having taken all that immodium - it's very effective stuff. In order to get a clean stool sample, you need to shit on paper (yes, just like a puppy), which meant squatting on the bathroom floor, which was amazingly painful.

I'm pretty sure I got the MRI's the first day I was in, and saw the neurosurgeon the second day. There was one very slow computer on each floor that volunteers could use for email and it was (as you would imagine) pretty busy, with people always waiting - I'm betting this was sent on one of my nocturnal rambles when the lines were reasonable.

Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 11:36

hey you all -

I'm here in DC, with my cat at Brenna & Chuck's (thanks again you guys!), my mom in the room down the hall, and a good case of giardia (doesn't that sound like fun!). X-rays and MRIs yesterday, today I'll bring the films in and talk to the doctor again. Looks to be surgery and coffee with half & half in my near future - and it looks like I may be able to make it back to site as well, which would make me most pleased indeed.

Petition whatever gods you're currently favoring for me, ok?

love and squalor -

meg

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home