Week 5: Get it in Guate

I am experiencing a lot of "firsts" in Guatemala. I hope, at the end of my time here, the most memorable ones will pertain to speaking Spanish, living with my family, and experiencing the culture, but for blog fodder there are definitely a couple more interesting, and more unfortunate, ones that are happening right now.

Of course, the one that has been at the front of my consciousness has been dealing with bedbugs. Many of you have been very helpful, sending me articles on how to combat the little f'ers, but I've also been told things like "good luck, but bedbugs are almost impossible to get rid of". That said, I have tentative good news: I haven't gotten any new bites in ten nights! If the chinches are indeed D-E-D, I will happily share the likely reason we were successful. It has to do with this article: Ohio Asks E.P.A. to Lift Ban on Use of Propoxur

From what I've been reading on the interwebs, the United States is experiencing a /huge/ resurgence in bedbug infestations, largely due to resistance to over-the-counter insecticides, and a lack of public knowledge on how to identify and combat the critters. Indeed, before coming to Guate, I had only heard things like, "Oh, avoid that apartment complex, they have bedbugs," and I couldn't have told you anything more on the subject. Ohio is having a worse time than most (true for many things), so the state is pressing the FDA to lift a ban on propoxur which is only slightly less effective than DDT at killing bedbugs. Anyway, a couple weeks back I was at the mercado buying insecticide, and lo and behold, there was propoxur on the list of active ingredients! Yup, the industrial insecticide banned in the USA because of it's crazy toxicity to humans is available everywhere in Guatemala, and I currently have a thick layer of it covering my floor, walls, and mattresses. There's a good chance my firstborn child will have three heads because of the stuff, but it looks like it killed the bedbugs, so I'm going to say it is well worth it.

By sharing this next "first" I am running the risk of never getting a foot massage from Caleb ever again, but here it is: probably because my feet are eternally damp here in Xela (I wear my Chacos in the shower and it always rains in the afternoons), I have a bit of athlete's foot between two toes. Ew. This isn't a big deal for many folks, but for this here hypochondriac medical student, I want the fungus DEAD, right now. Especially because the fungus is only one toe away from my big toenail, which is still all messed up from running. You see, damaged toenails are cozy spots for fungus to grow, and the last thing I want is this.

Usually a combination of keeping the area dry (and therefore inhospitable to fungus) and applying a topical fungicide will get rid of athlete's foot, so I went to one of the many pharmacies in Guatemala to get some ketoconazole cream. As I've written about earlier, I had prepared a short conversation in my head in which I quickly and successfully bought ketoconazole cream from the pharmacist. But as you may guess, the conversation went nothing like I was expecting: when I asked for ketoconazole cream, the pharmacist looked at me, took a deep breath, and began rattling off every antifungal imaginable for purchase. People (med students and doctors, especially), you can buy oral grisofulvin and terbinafine over the counter here! Or almost any other medicine imaginable, for that matter. You just have to know what to ask for. So after I got over the shock of this realization, I politely declined the smorgasbord she offered me, and asked again for plain ol' antifungal cream. Two ounces of it cost me $1.50, a tenth of the US price. So yup, the pharmacies are super cheap here, too.

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Enough with infestations and infections. How is Guatemala? How are my studies going? All pretty well, I'd say. My Spanish is getting better each day; I still am speaking very slowly, very simply, and very incorrectly, but I can get my point across most of the time. The hardest thing so far has been conjugating verbs. It is tough to choose the right tense and verb ending within the split second required to not sound like a stuttering idiot ("Ella tien- no, ha...hi...hic...hiz...hizo. Hizo! Ella hizo un montón de tarea anoche."). I'm working on it.

My family is great. They're beginning to realize that I can understand much of what they're saying at the dinner table (I'm pretty amazed, too), so they're engaging me more, I'm speaking more, we're bonding, it's good. Rodrigo, the grandson of the house, has warmed up to me considerably. He used to hide behind one of his aunts whenever I entered the room, but nowadays he likes to take me on adventures around the tiny courtyard, where we usually end up chasing the cat, Sol, together. Here's a picture of him pouting right after Luna, the beagle, took his stuffed animal:



Most of my activities haven't been picture worthy, so I apologize for the dearth of photos. I should have some good photos after tomorrow, because I'm going to San Francisco el Alto, the biggest mercado in Central America. It is basically the less touristy, more down-and-dirty version of Chichicastenango, the mercado I was planning on going to last weekend (those plans fell through, but I'll go eventually). So instead of leaving y'all with a photo, I'll tell you about a small cultural difference I found interesting:

Guatemalans point with their lips. My first few weeks here I thought the people I asked for directions were suggesting I kiss them. But no, they're just pointing in a more efficient manner :)