Life on the Beach

Hey guys! So first week of brigades have finally ended and it was actually VERY tiring. I thought that we would be trekking through a forest to learn about the different diseases, but instead we just went to small towns. On Thursday, we did our brigades on chagas which is a very scary disease that is trasmitted by the chinche bug. The treatment for this disease costs 100,000 pesos, which is around $10,000USD/year! O___O crazy! It was SO hot though. OMG. I was sweating buckets!! The heat gave me a really bad headache, and I felt so dehydrated. Plus, we had to walk up and down hills...and we walked a LOT. Oh well...at least we burned a lot of calories! YAY! However, overall, I felt that the chagas brigades was boring. We walked so far and so much just to go to a total of 3 houses. It was pretty lame.

a Chinche (dead)

Then, later on, Andy, John, Judy, Trieu, Serene, Lisandra, and I decided to walk to Super Che, the Costco of Oaxaca, for groceries again. It was nice because we walked along the shore of the beach. Judy and I collected many seashells! We are planning to bring them back to the states and put them in glass jars! ^_^ The whole walk to Super Che took around 1.5 hours!!! Whew! But, it was a LOT of fun just walking with good company along the beautiful coast. I absolutely LOVE the ocean. I could probably sit on the sand and just watch the ocean for hours.

dead puffer fish we found on the beach...doesn't it look SO sad? LOL

Today, we went to educate a tiny pueblo on dengue and chagas. It was such a cool experience. The ride there was an experience itself. We drove for 1 hour or so along the BUMPIEST dirt road ever! Halfway, one of the vans got suck in this ditch. The drive was beautiful. We saw papaya trees, weird looking cows with humps, and just fields of different foods!

When we got there, there was already a ton of people gathered there. Apparently this was a community meeting. A couple of us got up there and explained the dengue disease, its transmission, and prevention tips. The people who explained the disease were AWESOME! Afterwards, we were split into groups to explain chagas. Joaquin did most of the talking in our group...most of us just stood there and listened...and gave him "moral support" hahah. But, it was fun and very interesting. I definitely love this public health aspect of the trip despite it being exhausting and HOT.

Angela and Edgar explaining about chagas

The people from the pueblo took us down to see this river. I love this picture because John looks like a freakin gangster with gang signs thrown up from his posse haha!

The people at this tiny pueblo (probably only around 300 ppl) were so hospitable. This one family cooked food for all of us. Even though it was only just beans and rice...it was the BEST beans and rice I've had! :) It was a great experience being able to eat a meal with these people.

Then, during the afternoon, we decided to go to the shopping areas near Super Che again. I bought a couple of nice stuff for friends and family there, but definitely the things are more expensive since this is a very touristy area. Definitely waiting until we get back to Oaxaca to buy more things. On the way back, we walked again. We spent a heck of a long time taking pictures of the GORGEOUS sunset though. It probably was why we ended up getting back so late...but it was worth it!! We also saw baby sea turtles that just hatched make their way into the ocean! It was SOO CUTE and definitely one of the highlights of this entire trip!!!

cute baby sea turtles!

Sunset... *sigh

TOMORROW, i get my FIRST surf lesson! I'm pretty stoked...then I have TONS of work to do. SIGH. everything is winding down now...3 more weeks!