Beautiful Chaos

So it seems as though I cannot post onto my blog using the school computer. My little netbook, Lovebug, has passed on (possibly only on a temporary basis!!!!!!! HENRY!?!??!!) I was quite upset, I’m not gonna lie, but as my mom always says, ‘if it’s a problem that money can fix, it’s not really a problem, is it?’ J

The past few days have been good. I’ve been given permission to revamp the diagnostics lab course! Great news! I also get to review my own pathophys and incorporate it more into the course. I’ve talked about it with Rebekah (fellow volunteer) and she says that in addition to the PBL resources I have (high/low values, what the test indicates, etc) I can get them to look up clinical manifestations as homework. Or maybe I’ll do this for them and get them to do a pathophys review session for each other. Either way, I really want them to do some form of presentation to each other so that they can practice their spoken English.

I’m almost done my first aid course. Thank god I saved all my documents on my USB key, otherwise I would’ve lost EVERYTHING that was on Lovebug (all my BCIT documents, travel documents, first aid course content, PICTURES!!!!!!!) Feels like that was the one thing I’ve done right so far. It’s so easy to know what you’ve done wrong, isn’t it, that the things you do right have an inflated sense of importance. Haha.

This weekend was so awesome. I went on a small trip with three other volunteers to the Srimangal area (the North-Eastern part of Bangladesh). We stayed at a tea resort and met a tonne of cool ppl. We left Fri morning around 0600. I went on my first rickshaw ride that morning. I have decided that Bangladesh is a beautifully chaotic country. There is so much beauty in the tea estates, in the fruit plantations, yet amongst the honking and blaring of horns on the streets, so chaotic. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the irony of this country, or maybe even life. Haha. Dork.

My swollen mosquito bites have gone down to near normal sized. I still have a few blisters but most have subsided (thank, in large part, to me popping them) Nobody ever said that I was beautiful, the country. Nor am I glamourous. The cheap knock-off Rorschach test sweat design on my shirt will attest to that (pictures to follow when I come home).

In the trek around the tea resort we stayed at, Rhodina and I met some very friendly locals. I gave a part of my heart away to a cute little boy who followed us around the tea resort. I tried 5-layer tea (more a novelty than anything) and ate a lime another boy picked off the tree for me. J

On Sat, we went to Lowacherra forest and saw great big orb (banana) spiders, went chasing after gibbons (monkeys) off-trail and was attacked by leeches, thus causing my crocs to be filled with blood and dirt. Again, so glam. I was so scared, chasing after the gibbons, but I thought, hey, what am here to do? Now I have this great experience of going monkey chasing and getting three leeches caught on my feet (so weird). You bleed a surprising amount with each leech, I tell you!

So not without surprise, I had the big D twice this weekend. Oh well, as to be expected, surprised I made it a whole week without it! Nothing I can’t overcome and get past, though. Have yet to ‘pop a squat’, as Amy so coherently worded, in a public toilet but I feel it’s only a matter of time.

It’s been one full week and it feels like I’ve been here for so long. Time to finish off my lesson, hopefully someone will help me post this!!!



Love you all, thinking of you all

Cass Ma