On pain and becoming an official Peace Corps volunteer

Friday we officially committed the next 24 months of our lives to Costa Rica...legally, I am bound to serve this country until May 29, 2011. This means training has ended and we are finally beginning what we have come here to do.....be Peace Corps Volunteers. Here’s some pictures from the big ceremony.

The ambassador and the Peace Corps Costa Rica Country Director:

Adrienne and Chase becoming official:

That´s me becoming official:

Okay, I´m official!

This is the group of Children, Youth and Families volunteers with program managers and spanish language facilitators:

So with that being said (and shown), today, Sunday, all of the new volunteers are going to their sites all scattered throughout the country. That is, everyone except me. Why? you ask. Well, the answer is in the two trips to the hospital, the two shots in the buttocks, the two xrays, the one abdominal sonogram, the five types of medicine, and the two blood tests I have had over the past week. Don’t be alarmed. It sounds worse than it is.

Earlier this week, I left our second to last Spanish class due to the beginnings of an illness: cramping and pain in the abdomen and pain in the lungs. Later that day it all worsened. By nightfall, it was unbearable, and instead of trying to force myself to sleep in loads of uncomfortable pain, I called the Peace Corps Medical Officer and told her I would be escorting myself to the ER in San Jose. Trying to explain the type of pain I was having in to the doctors at the hospital in Spanish must have been entertaining. I think it probably translated to something a little bit like this in English: My lungs hurt. I can’t breathe. There is pain in my abdomen. It feels [motion with hands a symbol that is supposed to mean tight]. I can’t breathe strongly. I cant be flat in my bed. Needless to say, they got the point and sent me to the ER for an xray. I thought my Spanish was pretty good until the point when the xray technician left the room for me to change for my xray. There I waited eagerly for him to return in my hot pink bra, anxious to know the source of my pain. He opened the door and quickly said "No, no, no, camisa SIN braseirre," meaning shirt no bra. I understood the opposite: bra no short. Ha, I’m sure he got a good laugh at that one…the gringo that came in and wanted to have an xray done topless.

Anyway, long story short, I was told I had an infection of the lining of my lungs…inflammation that caused those breathing pains, oftentimes known as pluerisy. Fast forward to Thursday, after being on three medicines and not getting better, I take myself back to the hospital. More tests, and pokes and prods later, I was told some ambiguous thing about my lungs and nerves and given two more medicines.

I made it to my swearing-in ceremony early the next morning eventhough I was in extreme pain as I took the official oath. So here I sit, in my training community, the last, the only Tico 19 former Peace Corps TRAINEE left. Though it’s loud and cars and motos buzz by and the rain pounds on the tin roof above me, it is so silent. All my training mates have scattered throughout this land, eager and ready to embark on this adventure we all came here to do. Soon, with a little more rest, TLC, and a few more days of these meds, I will be back on my feet, heading south to my new home as well, ready to insert myself into the little community of 400 in the mountains of Costa Rica.