Bathwater tea

I need to start writing down the things I want to cover in these things because there is so much that I mean to relay through here that I forget while going through my days.

Yesterday we went to an orphanage and watched the kids perform several dances and sings some songs and play a little music. They were so well practiced and talented, it was really great to see how happy they all were. Something that I along with several other volunteers couldn't help but notice was the fact that these children in comparison to the ones we work with or interact with everyday, who come from full families and live in decent homes, seemed healthier and just as happy if not happier. They receive great education and are able to practice activities like dancing, singing, musical instruments and art, have clean beds to go to every night and as one of the employees of the orphanage said, will most likely be able to get jobs once they are old enough to go out on their own. The children in the orphanage are better off in the sense that they are in a system that looks out for them whereas outside families, the system just doesn't seem to be working for the people here.


Things at work are going really well and I can tell that I am going to really miss all the people I work with once I'm gone. I've decided that I want to focus a lot of my efforts on heart health and proper hydration as far as my work with the Healthy Center. It's incredible how much misinformation there is about health here even among some doctors. I've heard doctors tell people that drinking a lot of water is bad for your heart as it makes it work too hard and yet salt intake isn't thought to affect the heart at all. It's too bad, but the people here are very responsive to educational programs, especially with organizations they trust such as the Healthy Center, so I'm very optimistic about putting those programs together.

Today I went to a new organization where I think I will be spending two days a week teaching English with another volunteer. The kids are really great and eager to learn, but the organization itself needs some work. They are in the process of constructing a new building that will house expanded programs to include housing for the elderly and classrooms for the youth. Something I've noticed here is that while there is an abundance of NGOs, many of them have such huge visions that it is difficult for them to succeed in as great a way as they should be able to. Which I don't think is entirely the fault of the organizations themselves but rather the fact that the benevolent individuals who run them see so much need, and want to do their best to serve the communities in which they work, solving as many problems as they can. I really hope for more coordination between the organizations as many of their missions overlap and they could really benefit from an exchange of ideas and especially from a pooling of funds.

I am starting to miss little things from the US. Mostly food related. Things like milk, pizza, red peppers, and most of all Starbucks. I also miss my family in a way I didn't really appreciate in New York. Even though I definitely have gone 8 or 10 weeks without seeing them, I never went that long without the ability to see them if I really wanted. Here there seems to be like, an ocean and an $800 flight between us. But the time really is flying, my language skills improving everyday, and a mounting list of "to do's" "to see's" and "to fit in my luggage to bring home with me's" I'm trying my best to fulfill.

The water keeps coming on and off and the other morning when I woke up my brother told me that it was off and if I needed water, they had filled up the bath tub before it went. Later, at breakfast, debating whether or not I could finish my cheesy meal or if I could employ one of the many methods for pretending to eat food my father had relayed to me (I chose to simply explain that I don't like cheese and had Borsch instead), I was wondering why the tea tasted different all of a sudden. Only on my way out the door did I realize that they had made tea from the gallons of water they had saved in the tub. As my friend Taleen just said to me an hour or so ago, "I think that my two months here will either knock a couple years off my life, or add a couple just based on how strong my immune system will be when I go back to The States. I've chosen to believe the latter."