Shannon Costello

So we are hanging around town waiting for lunch.  We have seen the last patient and packed up all the consulting rooms.  All of our stuff is now organized in the ‘pharmacy’, which is a lot of stuff lined up in suitcases, bags, and small plastic tables so that all wall space is used.  I got some hang out time with Ana Lucia and her brother, Sebastian.  Actually it appears that his name is Johann Sebastian.  Their mother got me a knitted hat and scarf as a gift.  We sat around and sang songs today.  I think I exhausted my collection of Spanish kids songs.  The funny part is that they knew one of the songs (I have a friend that loves me…his name is Jesus).  They knew it from school.  Then they sang me another song from school about the virgen.  They knew a Santa Cruz patriotic song as well.  The power of music….

Last night was all about high adventure.  Wayne was giving a talk on throat problems and most of us decided to show up as well.  Then we thought it would be fun to go by moto-taxi.  As my motorycle pulled away from the door I remembered that this was my first time ever on a motorcycle.  But it was fun, not scary.  Perhaps they didn’t ever go over 20 mph.  Flashes were going off as everyone took pictures of everyone else arriving.  The lecture was supposed to start at 8 and we got there just after 7.  Someone noticed a market around the block, so we headed over.  It was awful in that it was incredibly dirty.  Something icky in the air and dust was making me cough.  I didn’t buy anything, though there were some really interesting kids’ books.  Oh, and ‘Madame  Bovary’ and ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’ in Spanish. 

Francis decided that I should interpret the introduction (when it finally got started at around 8:45).  That was scary.  I had moments of greatness where I knew I hit the interpretation right on, but my left knee was shaking.  It’s just different speaking in front of an audience.  There were also moments of weakness in what I did, too…never fear.  It’s a high pressure job- and I was doing English from the Spanish. 

I think that watching people’s ears get cleaned out is completely gross.  By the way! 

I have started some mild processing here:  how should I answer when people ask how the trip was?  My current draft answer is that it was a lot more work than I had anticipated, that it was a really good experience, and that visiting a foreign country is so much better when you know the locals. 

The surazo is blowing in from the mountains today, so it is windy and chilly and sort of rainy. 

I’ve been thinking about the ‘Are you fluent in Spanish’ question as well.  I still am  not comfortable saying yes.  I’ve made mistakes, only some of which I am aware of.  For example, I was asking people about flu when I meant to ask about colds…in these days of swine flu, that’s an important difference.  I think I would say I get about 80% of most conversations…that is a downgrade from what I said before.  It’s hard to tell how much I’ve learned but I feel as if it is measurable in tons.