Garifunia refresher, Dengue, and my 1st hurricane!

Ok… so clearly I’m writing this so everything is fine.. meaning I didn’t die from dengue! But lets catch everyone one…
First, Last week Laura and I had our Language in-service training. It was going to be a refresher course on language, which we both really needed. Laura came a few days early and we hung out in Hopkins… even though I had threaten a man with the police and ran out of gas to cook we had a blast. Once again my neighbor pulled through for both and tried to help get my lawn chopped (I paid a man and he did a really bad job and didn’t finish but wouldn’t. I had to threaten the police but a guy who’s family owns the house ended up stopping by and doing it for me! She also was nice enough to let us finish cooking our chicken on her stove! Seriously what would I do without my neighbors???)
Anyway, we had a great weekend and made it to Dangriga on Sunday ready for three non stop days of speaking Garifuna. Well Monday morning I woke up and wasn’t feeling so hot. By noon I could hardly walk. By 1PM Laura was sure I had dengue and I was in full denial (I’ll be fine!!) For those of you who don’t know dengue is a tropical desiese spread by misquotes. Its commonly called broken bone deiseise because it literally feels like your bones are broke. It was by far the most painful thing I’ve every experienced, and this time I’m not exstuating. I could hardly move. There is also nothing they can do for it. I got some Tylenol for the fever and to “help” with the pain but it didn’t really do much beyond the fever… for about 5 days I was sure I was going to die, but by day 6 it was ok. Today I’m feeling much better, at least I feel like myself again. I’m still tired and sore and not 100% but I no longer feel like I have 232 broke bones  So Friday as I was lying in bed dying peace corps called, they informed me they were picking me up and we needed to talk. Well once I got to the peace corps office I found out that surprise a hurricane was coming! (who watches the weather channel when they are sick? Isn’t that was E! is for?) so Basically I needed to get on a bus come back make sure my house was packed up and hurricane proof than turn around in the morning and get back to Belmopan. I talked with some staff and decided the only thing in my house was my computer and it was up high away from windows so I wasn’t moving.
On Sunday morning about 20 other volunteers arrived at the hotel (other volunteers were in hotel in other parts of the country) We got briefed by Peace Corps (who informed us it was now a category 2 hurricane and headed straight at us… ) and were locked in the hotel. It started at about 6pm. It was heavy rain and by 9 the wind was so strong it was scary. We would stand on the balcony and get blown down it. (Don’t worry mom we were safe the whole time!) two men from the hotel walked around all night and made sure we were safe and the building was ok. at some point in the night the ceiling of the rooms on the third floor starting collapsing so we were all moved to the second floor. The second floor is like a motel the hall ways are open, it was interesting trying to move with candles and pitch blankness in 90 mile an hour winds! But no worries we woke up safe in the morning! Through the night I keep in contact with not only other volunteers but also my counterpart down in Hopkins and my host family who were at my host brother’s house in Belmopan right down the street. It was nice to know everyone was safe yet scary not knowing what how my house was or if others were ok. Lucky Hopkins wasn’t damaged much other than a few down trees and everyone is ok. Belize City wasn’t so lucky and had a lot of damage. I watched the news for a bit with my neighbor and it was so sad to watch.
First thing Tuesday morning we were all cleared from the hotel and allowed to leave. The buses were back and up and running and I returned home. There was no damage too my house at all and actually came back to a fixed up yard! Lucky me!
I spend the afternoon with me neighbor (he fixed my bike! Seriously what would I do?) and my oldest Host sister stopped by and hung for while. It’s so nice to be back. Today I’m back to work! Its about time. This weekend is Halloween (my favorite… note the sarcasm) Friday we are having a parade and other than that not much happens. The big news is that its almost November which is a very eventful month in a Garifunia community, we have all sorts of events and celebration, but that sounds like a perfect next blog so I’ll catch you up on that soon!