No Money Mo problems

So now I am officially a volunteer worker and I´ll make no money for a whole year and I would like to say that Puff Daddy is totally wrong. I feel like even though I am making no money I have tons of new problems. So lets just say for the record, this is my venting entry.

Lets start with the illnesses. Since we got here it seems like Jenny and I have been nearly alternating from day to day who is not feeling well. From stomach aches, to head aches, lack of sleep, colds, etc. As for me I started with the typical indigestion problems associated with living in a new country and eating all new foods that I am not used to. No big deal, I was expecting that. Then, I was starting to feel like I am getting into a groove and the food doesn´t bother me any more. So I was working on painting all day Monday which was the last step in our construction project of 22 solar ovens that Grupo Fenix was contracted to make for the governor of Esteli. Well, here in Nica they use paint thinner very very liberally to stretch their paint and it turns out to be about 50/50 in the end. At first the smell bothered me some while I was painting, then eventually I got numb to it. But I also thought that it was no big deal because we are outside and theres plenty of air flow, right? WRONG! I started feeling bad on Monday night, then tuesday morning I woke up with my nose and throat burning and the stuffiest nose I have had. One of the other volunteers noted that a stuffy nose is the bodys reaction to bad chemicals being inhaled, which I think makes sense. I figured it was obviously due to the paint thinner and since tuesday was day 2 of painting with no masks I decided to sit it out and recuperate. Now it is Saturday and I am still coughing a bit and my nose isn´t unclogged yet.
To get to my next illness I have to give some background. Just about all the other volunteers, who all have been here for only about a month also have gotten sick. On our solar culture course one guy left early because he felt so bad. Another guy got Denghi fever and was out of commission for 2 weeks, then decided he didn´t like Grupo Fenix anyway and high tailed it out this week. The latest is that two others were feeling sick and tested postitive for parasites. Great. So the day after I hear about the parasites I start feeling sick too. Lemme tell you these symptoms make you feel so disgusting. Burping and farting for days on end with nothing to provoke it. Constant churning of the stomach and actual noisiness. Then as you could expect all the diarreah you can handle and vomiting. So I figured after all this I probably have the parasite too. So now I am in the internet cafe waiting for the clinic to finish my test results and tell me what I have to take to kill it. I also figured while we are at it we should get Jenny tested too since all the volunteers have been eating the same foods prepared by many of the same people all this time. And thats not all.

Now I can get to the real no money part. My wallet got stolen last week while I was here in Ocotal with some friends at the patron saint festival, which is a big fiesta the whole city has once a year. The party is so big they have like 7 live bands and they charge everyone a hundred cordobas to get in, which is expensive for here. We were all in line and one of our Nica friends has and idea on how to get to the front quick and get us all our entry bracelets. So she takes the money from all of us, smooth talks the dude at the counter and next thing we are pushing through the crowd to get our bracelets stuck on. At this moment I am thinking dang its crowded I really need to watch my wallet. So I switched it from my back pocket to my front left where I kept my hand in it all the time to keep guard. Well it just so happens that to get my bracelet on I had to reach over a row of people and stick out my left hand for the desk lady, and during the short 10 seconds I had my left hand off my pocket and reached out for the bracelet some creep picked me clean. I didn´t even feel anything or see anyone. I turned walked out of the crowd and felt for my wallet, I kid you not, only 30 seconds after it was stolen I noticed. And it was already too late. We called over the cops, they could do nothing and I just turned in a police report. It had about 45 bucks of equivalent US money, my drivers license, an ATM card and a credit card. I was at least smart enough to clean it out and only have my essentials in it. So I went back and got my bracelet cut off, took my 100 cords back and used it to pay a taxi to take me home. What a crappy night. So I learned my lesson, but I am not too sure of what I could´ve done better. I guess sometimes they just got your number.

So now I am done venting and I am going to take my broke parasite breeding butt back to the clinic to see what they have to say. I knew all this would be hard and there would be some obstacles, but for goodness sake! I am praying to the Lord it gets better because we are only just starting.