hi all, sorry for the lax behaviour with regards to my postings and musings on my blog. let me recap the last few fun filled weeks as i am sure you are dying to know all the exciting and fun things i've been doing to fill the time...
lets being with my head in the toilet, for that is exactly how my return to ottawa began, praying to the porcelain god oh joy. i was literally felled by the debilitating stomach flu for the whole weekend. managing to get up just in time for my doctor's appointment monday morning. the surgery lasted for 55 minutes (much longer than i had expected) but it felt like only a few minutes due to a wonderful suggestion from my sister ... NO2/laughing gas = AMAZING. (thanks lara)
maybe now would be a good time to discuss drugs vs pain. regardless of how we feel about drugs illegal or prescription i think we can almost unanimously agree that pain is bad. so why is it i had to wait until i was 32 to be giving NO2 to help ease the pain and anticipation of pain? throughout my life i have had my fair share of cuts, bruises, fillings/teeth pulled and later in life interesting (and scary) bouts with foreign born infections. never once was i offered anything for the pain aside from local anesthetic (and if i may point out those needles tend to hurt as much if not more than the offending problem). why is this? why oh why would we subject people to pain without even the offer of respite? NO2 happens to be even better than a dulling of pain i would dare to describe it as fun, i was completely removed from the experience of having a doctor roughly cut, scrape, dig and sew just below my lower lip for just under an hour. i would not have wanted it any other way. from now on i will take responsibility and ask for help with the pain instead of stoically enduring simply to say i did.
so the surgery was bearable (fun) but the post was brutal. my lower lip swelled and swelled to the point of ridiculous. i was likened (by me) to a white bubba from forest gump, not cool. unable to drink but from a straw, eating but the most basic of soft pureed foods (thanks for all the effort and delicious smoothies and milkshakes mom!) this lasted for 4 days, brutal, it got to the point that i believed my swelling lip would never subside and was beginning my life anew as a freakshow scarring little kids and making babies cry being my new niche.
but then on the 5th day the sun shone and my lip reduced, and the people rejoiced!
saturday i woke with a purpose, a raison d'etre. off to look at some new cool sleeping bags that occupy 1/4 of the space of my current sleeping bag, it just made me giddy. then off to coffee with a couple of friends. a very successful coffee if i may say so, 1 richoo is working on my professional website (so when it gets launched and looks super cool you know where to go for your wicked cool site) 2 recruited my buddy marc to join me on a scuba adventure in early april! how cool is that! we both have been wanting to get out padi for ages and now we plan to get it together in the most inexpensive places in the americas on a reef that is considered second to the great barrier reef! not to mention march and april are two months you are likely to encounter whale sharks! omg!
from there i got in the car and headed to my sister's where i've been since. together (lara, mike, katie and matthew) we celebrated valentine's day and now family day. oh the fun we are having! they say the best medicine is family and i would have to agree with "them". when katie saw my face she said "uncle damon, what happened, you have a booboo?"
"well katie, i went to the doctor and he did some cutting and making me better"
"does it hurt?"
"well yes a little but not so much anymore"
"uncle damon"
"yes katie"
"i am so proud of you!"
well if your heart doesn't melt from that you just may dead inside. (that was harsh so i am going to add a smily face to lessen the impact) :-)
so now i am waiting for the results which will of course be good news and filing my days with fun, family and friends. trying to accomplish a few minor improvements on my pack and travel system, see as many friends as possible and spending some quality time with my family.
until there is more to report, be well.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Monday, February 15
Wednesday, January 27
feliz comple anos!
i really can't seem to find the time to write everything exciting that happens to me and still find the time to experience the new and the different. like the other night when we were invited to the 19 year old birthday party of my guatemalan sister which just happened friday.
it was so very cool. so very exciting. so very unexpected. the day before as our mom got more comfortable with us (and my ability to understand what she was saying to us grew) she mentioned in hush tones that friday was glorias birthday and that there was going to be a surprise party and we were invited! having been to many birthday parties before as well as many parties i knew one thing, i like to party but what was this party going to be like? only time would tell. before we knew it the day was upon us and there was a mass of activity in the kitchen and about the house. cleaning, cooking and just generally busying about so much i took the opportunity to head out into town to my favourite coffee spot to do some homework (and maybe even a blog). with strict instructions however to return before 6 for the surprise.
in the house at the time were 4 students: myself, lena (german), else (norwegian) and pia (norwegian). all of our spanish was pretty weak so what to expect no one know but one thing we knew was that we didn't want to go to a party empty handed. but how much to you spend and what do you buy when some much for sale from the artist vendors is actually part of their daily wear or alternatively the tiendas (shops) that the locals frequent is essentially filled plastic crap. deciding that arriving with a regala (gift) too genorous could be considered ruder than bringing nothing at all (in weaker economic situations that is). in the end i purchased a smallish painting in the traditional mayan style for gloria's wall to remind her beautiful home while off in guatemala city studying to be a doctor. lena gifted her rain jacket, which was of a quality unattainable in a country like guatemala and the girls, pia and else bought a beautiful little purse and put even prettier ear rings in it. i wish it wasn't the case but as it turned out we were the only people who brought gifts whereas everyone else brought great cheer and fun.
in all at the first sitting there were 16 of us around the table and then for the second there seemed to be more but by then the space was teaming with children, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, lions and tigers and bears, oh my! for food there were 5 roasted chickens, bowls of potatoes and of veggies and few things i didn't recognize but certainly enjoyed. the festivities went on for quite awhile and the family was excited for me to bring out my photo gear to take a large family picture (in truth i think it was more my pleasure than theirs as i was able to bring my camera out and shoot to my hearts content in a country where many a man and woman will not agree to have their photos taken) beyond that it may also be your pleasure as in my opinion the photos are great!
must go study for class....a bit to share on that front but not at the expense of my studies so i shall save my latest activities for a future post. ciao.
Thursday, January 21
just so excited!
as promised yesterday i was going to bring my camera to school so that i could show you how environment helps learning. true to my word i brought my camera and with my teacher went for a little walk around the sprawling lakeside grounds. it was a beautiful morning and i was more than happy to being my lesson not at a desk rather strolling and chatting and taking photos. we ended up walking for more than an hour before we finally made it back to school (rough i know) and when we returned nico, my teacher, started to look rather pale (and for an indigenous guatemalan, that is not an easy). i was quite to point out that learning spanish and ignoring his well being was not something i was prepared to do and so my school day was cut short and i took full advantage.
on my way home i stopped for a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice from one of the three competing juice sellers a few steps from my front door. that in itself is hilarious, the town has a population of 15 000 people and only three street juice vendors, what i find rather amusing is that they have their stalls within 10 feet of one another. when a local or tourist alike walks by the shouting beings. "jugo! jugo! tres Quetzales! jugo de naranja! tres Quetzales" i have been living here at my family's casa for a few days now walking by these stalls at least 1/2 a dozen times a day and it is always the same thing as it is for EVERYONE "jugo! jugo! tres Quetzales! jugo de naranja! tres Quetzales" in fact as i sit here typing away just outside my window every few minutes the competition for customers resumes. what makes it even better is that all three stalls sell exactly the same fresh fruits and charge exactly the same price! too funny.
after my oj i walked on down to this cool mayan store that a friend told me he bought a necklace with his mayan astrological sign. cool store, nice lady and very cool necklace. it turns out that my sign based on the date of my birth is "AQ'ABAL - the night"
so there i am paying for my new cool necklace and reading about my sign when the lady asked if i'd mind running up to get some copies of the description as it was her last one. no problem, happy to help (especially after negotiating down the price). she told me where to go but my spanish is not so good. after entering shop after shop i find myself in the shop that is the front to me casa and as it turns out there is the photocopier. copies made i head back down the hill (san pedro is built on the side of a volcano, ergo uber hilly, i will delve more into this in a later post). in retelling the fact that me casa is also where the copier was she starts to grin wildly. "gloria es me hermana" (she is my sister). i go on in poor spanish. Gloria is my mom here in guatemala, she is amazing, you are her sister so that makes me your nephew! well now we are both laughing and have had a good hug. and i ask her with a big smile, so now that we are related is the price the same (of course i was joking and in fact felt a bit bad for negotiating a lower price from what is now family) again we both laughed an i went on my way. yet the connections kept coming! upon returning to me casa, i retell this to gloria, my guate mama, and she loved it, then goes on to tell me that her niece owns cafe cristobalas, this is the place i blogged from yesterday! the place that grows its coffee in the back and serves it in the front! after i gushed about how much i loved the coffee she tells me that cafe cristobalas is the coffee that she has been serving me for breakfast lunch and dinner (much like my nanny and pappa, once i they get it in their head that i like something, come hell or high water whenever i see them i will surely get one). of course gloria doesn't prepare it with the skill of her niece and it is a bit watered down but a bit watered down fresh organic coffee that was grown in the backyard is MILES better than anything i have ever got in canada. :-)
my new found connection with gloria and her whole family has brought the two of us together even closer than before. now i have been invited into the "living area" that she shares with her family and am now typing away in there 'office' (a room with a desk and phone jack). you are family she tells me, no problem, whenever.
not wanting to waste the whole day away, i will leave you with my delicious street food experience from last night...after spending some time with some friends and deciding it was time to go home i went on my way. but on the way i passed by the bbq chicken lady, immediately my stomach said, time to eat. por favor, pollo? nope she was out (a testament to the deliciousness of night time snack) so i opted for the sausage...mmmmm, amazing i might even wager better than the chicken. on the plate to split sausages, a large dollop of refried beens and doused in spicy sauce and of course the 4 fresh and warmed tortillas. it was so very good i toyed with the idea of having another but having only 10Q in my pocket precluded my strong desire to gorge myself on spicy street sausage and tortillas. what did i learn....always keep an extra 20Q tucked away for you never know when and where you will find yourself (in other words what time of day and which street stall you stubble across.)
i hope you enjoy these photos, i loved taking them.
on my way home i stopped for a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice from one of the three competing juice sellers a few steps from my front door. that in itself is hilarious, the town has a population of 15 000 people and only three street juice vendors, what i find rather amusing is that they have their stalls within 10 feet of one another. when a local or tourist alike walks by the shouting beings. "jugo! jugo! tres Quetzales! jugo de naranja! tres Quetzales" i have been living here at my family's casa for a few days now walking by these stalls at least 1/2 a dozen times a day and it is always the same thing as it is for EVERYONE "jugo! jugo! tres Quetzales! jugo de naranja! tres Quetzales" in fact as i sit here typing away just outside my window every few minutes the competition for customers resumes. what makes it even better is that all three stalls sell exactly the same fresh fruits and charge exactly the same price! too funny.
after my oj i walked on down to this cool mayan store that a friend told me he bought a necklace with his mayan astrological sign. cool store, nice lady and very cool necklace. it turns out that my sign based on the date of my birth is "AQ'ABAL - the night"
so there i am paying for my new cool necklace and reading about my sign when the lady asked if i'd mind running up to get some copies of the description as it was her last one. no problem, happy to help (especially after negotiating down the price). she told me where to go but my spanish is not so good. after entering shop after shop i find myself in the shop that is the front to me casa and as it turns out there is the photocopier. copies made i head back down the hill (san pedro is built on the side of a volcano, ergo uber hilly, i will delve more into this in a later post). in retelling the fact that me casa is also where the copier was she starts to grin wildly. "gloria es me hermana" (she is my sister). i go on in poor spanish. Gloria is my mom here in guatemala, she is amazing, you are her sister so that makes me your nephew! well now we are both laughing and have had a good hug. and i ask her with a big smile, so now that we are related is the price the same (of course i was joking and in fact felt a bit bad for negotiating a lower price from what is now family) again we both laughed an i went on my way. yet the connections kept coming! upon returning to me casa, i retell this to gloria, my guate mama, and she loved it, then goes on to tell me that her niece owns cafe cristobalas, this is the place i blogged from yesterday! the place that grows its coffee in the back and serves it in the front! after i gushed about how much i loved the coffee she tells me that cafe cristobalas is the coffee that she has been serving me for breakfast lunch and dinner (much like my nanny and pappa, once i they get it in their head that i like something, come hell or high water whenever i see them i will surely get one). of course gloria doesn't prepare it with the skill of her niece and it is a bit watered down but a bit watered down fresh organic coffee that was grown in the backyard is MILES better than anything i have ever got in canada. :-)
my new found connection with gloria and her whole family has brought the two of us together even closer than before. now i have been invited into the "living area" that she shares with her family and am now typing away in there 'office' (a room with a desk and phone jack). you are family she tells me, no problem, whenever.
not wanting to waste the whole day away, i will leave you with my delicious street food experience from last night...after spending some time with some friends and deciding it was time to go home i went on my way. but on the way i passed by the bbq chicken lady, immediately my stomach said, time to eat. por favor, pollo? nope she was out (a testament to the deliciousness of night time snack) so i opted for the sausage...mmmmm, amazing i might even wager better than the chicken. on the plate to split sausages, a large dollop of refried beens and doused in spicy sauce and of course the 4 fresh and warmed tortillas. it was so very good i toyed with the idea of having another but having only 10Q in my pocket precluded my strong desire to gorge myself on spicy street sausage and tortillas. what did i learn....always keep an extra 20Q tucked away for you never know when and where you will find yourself (in other words what time of day and which street stall you stubble across.)
i hope you enjoy these photos, i loved taking them.
school view
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
