Indoor Plumbing!

I switched homestays as planned into the lap of luxury… at least as good as it gets for my community. I have my OWN room, complete with bed, desk, and chair. Although the bed is still just wooden boards with an inch-thick piece of foam laid on top, it is my very own, free from coughing children and crying babies. As it is my own room, I now have space for my things, which I moved out of storage from another house in town. What difference to have my books at arms reach whenever I need to look something up! I bought a wooden shoe rack at the Do It Center which is the perfect size to hold all of my clothes and stay organized. (Although I’m still working out where I want to keep the clothes I’ve worn already but aren’t quite dirty enough to warrant a full days work to wash.)

Other improvements include a family with seating, a dining area with enough chairs for all of us, and a kitchen inside the main house. Plus all the floors are cement, as opposed to dirt. And best of all, there is INDOOR PLUMBING! Not only does the kitchen have a sink with running water, but there is a bathroom with both a flushing toilet and a shower with a drain! Yep, I’m livin’ the high life!

However, the first day I moved into my new home, I was greeted by a torrential downpour and thunderstorm. Moreover, within about a half hour of my arrival, the house was struck by lightning which burned out the TV. I didn’t have TV at the last house, so I am not complaining about missing episodes of Victoria like my host mom.

Two days later I managed to eat something that didn’t agree with me. I can’t decide if it was a sip of already fermenting juice or perhaps an empanada that I was given at the conclusion of my Producers Association meeting. Whatever it was, I was up all night with the worst gas I’ve ever had. And this is to say that every ten minutes I would sit up to release a fruity flavored, carbonated belch. I hadn’t drunk any soda or beer since I arrived in my community a month ago, so go figure. By about 3am, I decided that it wasn’t just gas coming up from my digestive system. I reached for my Nalgene bottle, and knocked it off my desk. Darn it! As it clattered on the floor, I dove for it and immediately released the building pressure from within. As it rapidly filled with the first two heaves, I fiddled with the lock on my door and emptied out the rest of my upper digestive system just past the front porch stoop.

I then took a walk into the sugar cane field to pour out my Nalgene and get some fresh air. I figured it probably wouldn’t be best to leave my little front door surprise, and used my water bottle to dilute it a little and prayed it would pour soon. I then unlocked padlock I put on the front door each night and made my way to the bathroom to finish emptying out my system, from the other end. However I was thwarted in my effort by my host mom.

It must be explained that Panamanian house construction in the campo does not involve any insulation to buffer noise levels. In addition, my host parents share a wall with my room. So needless to say, I must have made quite the introduction with my midnight symphony. She asked the obvious if I was feeling poorly. I wonder how she could have figured that out. And then proceeded to offer me an assortment of medications. No, really, I will be okay. Please, for the love of God, just let me use the toilet! She eventually let me past. Two trips to the bathroom later, I don’t think I had anything left in my system by the time morning rolled around all too slowly.

Though I ran through a mental list of all the possible parasites and bacteria that could have caused me such discomfort, I was as good as gold by the next day. So while my first impression probably wasn’t the best on this new family, I certainly gained some confianza with them...