Spider bites, gecko poop, and candlelit showers

Exciting news, Musa set up a computer for me at my workdesk now so I don’t have to monopolize the student’s computers as I work on my powerpoint presentations! Here’s to Musa! So I’m reading my last updates and I have to apologize for carelessness in spelling/word choice. But hey, if I can put up with power outages and showering with cockroaches, you can put up with my mistakes. J
Funnily enough, those ‘mosquito bites’ that blistered up turned out to actually be spider bites, we discovered the other night over dinner. It makes sense because not all my bites had blisters on them and I was so confused as to why those particular ones had developed them. I thought it was ironic that I was bit by one of the things I’m most scared of when I’m home in Vancouver. Let me explain….Bangladesh was something I was sooo scared of yet faced anyway. After I arrived, unconsciously in my sleep, I faced another one of my fears. And then it bit me. Multiple times. And I swelled and blistered. Haha. I think it’s safe to say who won THAT battle. (me)
The diagnostics course is coming along. Since I last posted, I have completed the first aid course for senior nursing students and compiled another one for the security guards at the school gate. That one is very very basic and they don’t speak much English, so it was a challenge making that one up. I used lots of pictures which I poached from google and tried to use as many simple words as possible. A part of me felt kind of bad doing that, borderline disrespectful, but it was how I was instructed to do so. I’ve actually got 3 first aid courses to teach aside from the one scheduled for the senior nursing students! I’m quite excited about that.
I’m starting clinical rotations on Sunday at the centre for rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injuries! I intend on going every Sunday and starting next Thursday and every subsequent one, I get to go to United Hospital to help with the med-surg students! I’m so excited. I brought scrubs and my stethoscope from home!!! I finally get to use them!
I invigilated my first exam on Tuesday – hand washing. Hehehe. We have boys and girls in the class so we had to go to the cafeteria to use their sinks cuz Corina and I didn’t want to stand in the boys washroom to watch them wash their hands.
I had to lecture some students on not completing their homework the other day. I felt horrible. They had one week to do it and then one of them was copying the terms right in front of me! Not only did they not do it, but they were copying right in front of me! And kept going after I caught them! I felt really bad for doing it and Karen’s talk about ‘not being their friend’ really became clear to me. I really hope they know that I don’t mean for it to come across as a power trip because it’s not my intention. This is adult learning, is it not? If you don’t want homework checks, you need to show me that you will do your hw on your own will, right? If you want to be an adult, you need to act like an adult. I really hope they understand where I’m coming from.
I was invited by Shehad (sp) to attend their nursing student association meeting sometime next week. I’m excited about that! I want to do a classics jeopardy/trivia game with them and I can use the telus sharpies Albert gave me as prizes! Something along the lines of what does erythro mean if erythrocyte is red blood cell and erythema means redness? So eryth would mean red. Something like that might be useful for them since they were telling me yesterday that English was very difficult for them! I’ll have to talk to him about it today. I also want to do the blood pressure stand on campus with them! Apparently in previous years the student association has set up a desk and done BMI and BP with the school, so that would be cool!
On my walks to and from school, sometimes the children in the area we live run by saying ‘HI!!!” and giving us flowers. This was one of those mornings. It is soooo cute. Who’d have thought that I would like flowers? J But it’s not just flowers, the thing that really gets me is that they grab little flowers or even twigs if they can’t find flowers. It’s just the novelty of giving something to us. That’s what I love. I think it’s adorable.
I went out to buy bananas the other day nearby and got lost on my walk home. The bananas are amazing here. They totally blow Vancouver’s bananas out of the water. They’re the little ones!! They taste like banana but then there’s a hint of sourness to them and it’s awesome!!!!!! So I got lost, and thought, ‘uh oh, I don’t even have a phone. Even if I had a phone, I wouldn’t know what number to call!!!!’ I don’t even know the house I live in!! Thank god for this one apartment building I use as a landmark to get home everyday and I oriented myself around that one.
What I’m seeing here is a sense of simplicity that astounds me. In my last trip to India, I was very moved by the poverty and felt a lot of guilt. What I’m seeing here in Bangladesh, though, is a sense of contentment and hospitality despite having bare essentials. I’m moved by it in a completely different manner. For example, when I was lost, I knew that I could cut across a field to get to the path I take home from school everyday. The field, however, was where a few families have their houses, so it felt like I was trespassing and I was sure to ask if I could walk across. Not only did they smile and waggle their heads, but one of the ladies felt compelled to walk out towards me and guide me along the walking path made of cement sacs. Something about that act really touched me. In Vancouver, how territorial can we be? Something about her was so warm and made me feel just…welcomed. Ok, that may have been really dramatic for most of you, but something about that exchange just got to me. Something about kindness knowing no differences – you don’t need to speak the same language to be kind, you don’t need to be from the same country to be kind, kindness is free. And that’s powerful, to me.
Anyway, I must apologize for not being able to load any pictures. Because Lovebug is dead, I can’t upload any pics onto any computer cuz I don’t have a card reader. Let’s all take a moment and appreciate the computer tech guys we know and love (Hen).
Love you all,
Cass Ma