Day 29

This morning I went to the clinic and went straight to pediatrics. Ever since I have been here there has been a little six year old boy named Tojik living as an in patient for malnutrition. This morning was the first I have seen him running around and laughing. I’m so happy to see him looking healthy and hopefully he’ll leave soon. He came in with a very big belly and face, signs of Kwashiorkor. I sat there and observed and got caught up on my notes from the previous couple of days. I went searching for things to do or nurses to talk to but I couldn’t find anyone. I didn’t see many patients at all and a lot of the staff wasn’t there either. I found my friends Monica and Doris sitting at the Eye clinic making signs for visiting hours. I helped them make the signs and post them around the clinic. It was finally time to close so I came home and made some lunch for myself. Cassie was already home so we talked for a while before I did my workout. I had one of the best workouts today. I used my Nike Training Center app and picked a couple workouts and it totaled up to 45 minutes. I downed about 4 bags of water during and after my workout. I took a shower and then helped Cassie with dinner. We wanted to attempt Pad-Thai like Jackie and Lauren. We bought groundnut paste at the market a few days ago and wanted to try to cook something for real tonight. We put onion, coconut, groundnut paste, and red pepper spice over spaghetti. It wasn’t as flavorful as we would have hoped but next time we’ll add different spices to it. Even though I am constantly thinking about all the food I can’t have here, I know that I am really going to miss all of this natural food I have at the tips of my finger. Everything I eat is so raw and delicious. I get to see the food being taken off the trucks straight from the farm to be sold in the market. The foods I’m going to miss the most are avocados as big as my hand, fresh pineapple, mangoes, and the eggs. More than the food, I’m going to miss the market day experiences. I am going to miss walking up and down the dirt roads while people yell my name to come and buy their food. The grocery store will be so boring. We should put someone in each aisle that will convince you their food is better than the other aisle’s food. The grocery store would make a profit and it would make the grocery store so much more fun. It’s a win-win. But seriously, I have made so many friends in the market I can’t stand the thought of having to say goodbye to them forever.

XOXO

Natalie