Boredom

Boredom consumes my weekends. Hours feel like days and one day feels longer than the whole week before. Maybe I am just bored because I am supposed to be camping right now with my host family, but things did not go as planned. Let me back up to this past week. All week we have been working with local teachers on lesson planning. I love my partner. She is very smart, and always brings good ideas to the table. I hope I am lucky enough to have co-teacher like her in Yap. During the week the days are long, but the week goes by very fast. This week I got over my heat rashes, have stopped having diarrhea, but I developed a UTI. It is my first UTI ever, and let me tell you, it's not fun having one in the middle of Pohnpei, Micronesia. Luckily our PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) is absolutly amazing. She started me on antibiotics the next day, and if am already feeling better. Yesterday was the 4th of July. This is one of my most favorite holidays. We went to the U.S. Embassy to celebrate with the other Americans living in Pohnpei. The ambassador spoke, along I with many other people. I am happy to say I participated in eating 2 hamburgers and a hot dog along with some yummy fruit and a delicious pasta salad, all topped off with a red, white, and blue cake! Over load on food for sure, but worth it! It was a great way to spend the 4th of July, but I must admit I am envious of my friends and family at home. The 4th of July isn't the same without a beer and some fireworks. And, although I am becoming quite close to the other volunteers, I miss you all back home. I know this is only the first of many holidays that I will spend here without you all, but I truly hope it gets easier. We had some free time in Kolonia, which is the main town on Pohnpei, and also where the embassy is located. I took this free time to go to the grocery store and buy some veggies and fruite. I also bought some brown rice for my family, so they could try it, and they loved it! But we will see if they buy it from now on or not. Today we had a nutrition day at school. In groups we all created a recipe with common found foods here in Micronesia. My group made veggie suey. It was good! The idea of today was to show us that we can have some control on what we eat here, it's a nice thought, but when I came home with a bag of veggies, fruite, and brown rice, my host family looked at me like I was crazy. Plus, who am I to come into their house and change up their diet. It is frustrating to say the least. I was supposed to go camping with my host sisters today, but they had to leave during high tide to get to the other  island, so by the time I got done with school, they were already gone. Very disappointing because I had my bags packed and I was ready to go. Just another miscommunication with me and my host family. My host mom is sick with a common cold, but shehas asthma, so my host dad took her to Kolonia to the hospital. So this means I had the whole afternoon with the house to myself with absolutly nothing to do. Not to mention, I live so far from the other volunteers there is no way I could meet up with any of them. So I worked out for a second time today, cleaned my room, this included the ant trail across my bed, took a nap and did some reading. It was a fine afternoon, just very boring, and I couldn't stop thinking about all the fun everyone was having back the the States for the 4th. I almost forgot to mention the newest member of my host family. A little kitten, who lives in the attic above my room. She nearly scared me to death when I first heard her. Now that I know it is her, I am relieved, hopefully she will eat all the spiders at try to get into my room. To bad she probably has fleas, I wouldn't mind a cuddling buddy. Lonelyness and boredom are the two things that makes it so hard to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. All the other things I can adapt to, but these two will take time and effort to get over. This weekend they are getting the best of me.  

On Sunday we went to the beach, it's not the sandy beach you are all familiar with it is more of a volcanic rock type of beach, but a beach no the less. We picnicked there. We had BBQ chicken and rice and fruit.  It was a lot of fun, but I got sunburned and I still felt lonely. Even though I was with my host family, they were all talking in Pohnpein and laughing and I had no idea what they were saying. Every now and then I would hear my name or Peace Corps, so I knew they were talking about me, but I had no idea what they were saying. Not a good feeling! Also, I got sunburned. The water was beautiful and it was a nice breezy day, but I couldn't get past the feeling of being alone. At least the day passed fast, back to school on Monday! 'Till next time!