Como limpar minhas PVC Figures, foi uma dúvida a qual me perturbou por um tempo. Procurei bastante na internet, pois inevitavelmente elas tornavam-se um depósito de poeira. Minha primeira tentativa para limpar a Rin foi trágica - tive a maravilhosa idéia de comprar uma escova de dente para limpa-la - o que resultou no arranhão que Rin possui agora na perna - as cerdas eram muito duras.

Não abandonei a idéia totalmente, mas a escova de dente estava fora agora. Decidi começar a usar alguns pincei que eu tinha em casa, para os meninos isso pode ser meio inconveniente, mas a melhor maneira que achei de limpar minhas figures é com pincel de maquilagem (ou maquiagem).

Os pincéis eram idéias para alcançar qualquer parte da Figure, eles existem de diversos tamanhos e grossuras. Às vezes faz-se necessário a ajuda de uma flanela para limpar a base, dê preferência a aquelas flanelas ou pano multiuso as quais não soltam pêlo.

Caso suas figures estejam sujas a um bom tempo, ou apenas muito sujas, seria bom para que a sujeira acumulada saísse por completo, passar uma flanela úmida e uma seca, acostume-se a limpar suas figures com freqüência - elas irão agradecer e ficar mais felizes ^_^ .

Algumas pessoas banham suas figures em bacias com água e sabão para limpar. Eu nunca fiz, pois tenho medo de não conseguir secá-las por completo e manchar algum lugar, ou amolecer a peça por ficar muito tempo molhada ou úmida.

Para os meninos tenho uma alternativa, usar pincéis de pintura, mas antes de comprar sempre teste se o pincel é maleável e macio, a aspereza das cerdas pode arranhar a pintura das figures assim como fez a escova de dente.

Como você limpa suas Figures ou Garage-Kits ?

Today on the 50^th year and 9^th month anniversary of my birth, I swore my oath to become a PCV. PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!  I have survived many hours of boring and loooong training sessions. I have also enjoyed many sessions. Laughed with trainers and other trainees, now PCVs. I have moved 6 times. Traveled to at least 5 cities or towns in Ghana. I have used tro tros, PC vehicals,  line cars, taxies, and state buses to travel around. Eaten fofo, snails, dried and salted fish and tons of chicken and rice. I have even had a Coke or two. I have greet people  in my neighborhoods. I have corrected children Yen fremay obruni ya fremay auntie vicky. They do not call me white man, they call me Auntie vicky.  As the above twi shows I  can't spell in twi but I have at last found a langage I can spell in – Buili.

The sense of joy I feel today is close to euphoria.  I am happy to have my life back. It was very hard to be a student again. The days were long and I never felt that I had enough time to do a good job on any project I had to do. It feels great to have all that training behind me. and even better to have setting up my new home, meeting my new neighbors and market ladies, and starting my teaching duties ahead of me.

The swearing in ceremony was beautiful. Our trainers worked late into the night on Monday and got up very early on Tuesday to decorate the stage and the audience area. It made me feel like they were really proud of us. The program started on time not Ghana time either but on the stated time. We had the US ambassador there, District education director from Koforiduia, Ghana district and even the local police chief. Many press were there. We had speeches of course.  Joe B and Mary announced our sites. We all walked and received our certificates of completion. Grace hugged me and Suhyen cheered loudly for all their homestay volunteers. Then those of us who wanted to said something in our new languages. I sang a song Taa Maaa Chabbe. It means we help each other. Then the best thing of all the  PCV dance troupe made up of people from my group. If I did not have the boil I would have been in there dancing with the rest of them. That was probably my biggest disappointment of training that after all the practice I could not do the traditional dance. NEXT TIME I WILL! Whenever and whereever that is.

We were served a box lunch of rice and chicken. We ate with our host families. Then the ceremony was over.  Lenore and I got back to       our room and said “Wow we have a whole afternoon to ourselves. Let's take a nap!”  I think the 50+ crowd adds a new dimension to Peace Corps activities nap time!

I did it. I made it through this first part. The PCVRFs told us that training is the most difficult and that as hard as it is to become part of the community, to teach and to live in a new culture at least you are more in control of what you do and how you do it.

Watch out Sandema here I come!

-vc

「人びとへの奉仕…社会主義への奉仕にために自らを尽くす政治的道具」としてベネズエラのウーゴ・チャベス大統領が初めてベネズエラ統一社会主義党（PSUV）の結成を呼びかけて以来、1年以上経て新しい党は11月の地方選挙の時のため、中央選挙委員会（CNE）に公式登録された。

PSUV全国選挙調整役のウィリアム・ララ氏は、チャベス大統領の旧政党である第五共和国運動（MVR）の登録と財源を「国の主たる政治勢力となるためにMVRに適用された権利を引き継ぐ」ものとして見なしており、それにはCNEによって招集された、最初の政党として投票用紙の位置を選ぶことが含まれる。

「我々は、CNEに我々を投票用紙の左上に配置するよう申請する。MVRと同じ位置だ」とララ氏は付け加えた。

写真上：メディアに応じるPSUV報道担当のウィリアム・ララ氏。（Aporrea/Archive ）

およそ570万のベネズエラ人が新党への入党希望者として登録した、一年におよぶ結成過程と、3月9日の中央幹部選挙で終了した2ヶ月間の結党大会の後、PSUVはここ数週間、地方幹部の選出過程を行なっている。

（中略）

PSUV中央幹部会はまた、次の知事・市長の地方選挙でボリバル革命を支持する全ての人びとによる愛国連合結成するために、祖国は全てのために（PPT）、ベネズエラ共産党（PCV）、人民選挙運動（MEP）などを含む連合政党との論議を行なった。

しかし、アルベルト・ミューラー・ロハスPSUV第一副議長は、愛国連合は単なる選挙戦線ではなく、社会主義政府モデルの構築に貢献するための「戦略的計画」だと説明した。

ホセ・アルボルノスPPT書記長は、「愛国連合の行動は、選挙運動にのみ対応するのではなく、基本的にその戦略的性質に従う」と同意した。

PCVのオスカル・フィゲラ氏は、「連合内には、政治的計画への傾倒が存在する...私たちは選挙キャンペーンと計画の応用へ向けて動き始めている」と付け加えた。

PSUVと愛国連合の候補の選出は、7月に予定されていると、幹部らは正式に発表した。しかし、候補者選出の確固とした方法は、最終決定されていないが、愛国連合は、候補者への指示を決定する投票制度を研究している。

今週、カラカスの計画学校での演説で、チャベス大統領は、ボリバル革命を支持する全ての人びとの連帯の構築は、地方選挙での勝利を得るために必要不可欠だと強調した。

社会主義リーダーはまた、ベネズエラの人びとに、「政治的な自由を敵に」与えない、「もし批判があれば、そうすることは必要だ、しかし私たちが勝ち取った自由を失ってはならない。人民の力の結集は必須だ」と呼びかけた。

大統領はまた、人びとに「突き詰めると民主行動党とCOPEIに由来する」反対派政党の扇動的キャンペーンにだまされないよう呼びかけた。

「今、バリオ・アデントロ計画やその他の計画を向上させるために、この選挙で勝ちたいと平気で言う反対派候補がいる。私たちの計画が、資本主義政府で存続できると誰が信じる？」と大統領は問いかけた。

チャベス大統領は、PSUVからの候補者は草の根によって推薦され、そして選ばれ、地域に対して責任がなければならないとあらためて表明した。

「私たちは、PSUVの候補者をまだ選出していないが、候補者に条件をつけることは必要であり、候補者は単なるスローガンにではなく計画に対して全力を尽くさなければならない」と主張した。

これらの候補者、更には現在政府で役職に就いている職員と民衆組織のメンバーは、官僚主義に立ち向かうことに打ち込み、人びとの要求に注意を払わなければならない、とチャベス大統領は説明した。

「私たちが毎日立ち向かわなければならない偏向のひとつは、官僚化だ。私たちは、人びとの要求に関心を向けなければならない...。誰も追い払うことはできない、むしろ私たちは街頭で人びとに耳を傾けるべきだ。」

この意味で、チャベス大統領は、「資本主義の非価値」を打ち負かし、全てのベネズエラの人びとにきれいな水、食料、住宅、衣服、保健、教育を得るといった基本的問題を解決することが必要だと論じた。

ニュース原文URL：http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3368
翻訳：berkfavela
この記事は、クリエイティブ・コモンズ・ライセンスの下でライセンスされています。

"pcv, apa itu dok?" dengan pandangan kosong saya bertanya pada dokter. maklum, di buku sehat yang dari rs sepertinya imunisasi ini tidak pernah disebut-sebut.

"pcv, buat mencegah pneumokokus, memang agak mahal sih, 800 rb, kita juga sudah mengeluh pada IDI tapi belum juga ada tanggapan tuh."

haa? 800 rb? saya pikir imunisasi DPAT-HiB gusata udah yang paling T-O-P (baca : mahal) di antara imunisasi lain,ternyata ada yang lebih mahal lagi?

DSA kami lalu mengeluarkan brosur dari IDAI (Ikatan Dokter Anak Indonesia) mengenai pneumokokus.

ini sepintas isinya:

apa yang harus ibu ketahui tentang Pneumokokus (IPD/invasive pneumococcal disease) :

• pneumokokus (IPD) disebabkan oleh bakteri Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pneumokokus)
• bakteri ini hidup secara normal di rongga hidung dan tenggorokan
• penularannya melalui percikan ludah ketika batuk, berbicara dan bersin
• penyakit iniberakibat fatal dan dapat menyebabkan kematian/cacat permanen

selanjutnya, saya jadi tahu kalo vaksin ini diproduksi secara eksklusif oleh Wyeth (dan hanya dapat diperoleh dengan harga mahal), serta belum ada data penyebaran penyakit ini di Indonesia. Brosur tersebut hanya menjelaskan data penyebaran di ASIA, tepatnya di Filipina, Hong Kong, SIngapura dan Malaysia. Entahlah dengan Indonesia. memang harus diakui bahwa Singapura dan Malaysia sangat dekat dengan Indonesia, tetapi entah penyakit ini sudah ada di Indonesia atau sudah ada tetapi belum ada yang meneliti penyebarannya. Kalau memang sudah tersebar di Indonesia dan sudah ada hasil penelitiannya, mengapa itu tidak dicantumkan dalam brosur resmi IDAI?

Jangan-jangan ini salah satu vaksin mahal yang didapat dari negara-negara berkembang dengan gratis untuk membuat kaya produsen vaksin tertentu? wah, gara-gara baca buku menkes kita, Siti Fadilah Supari, saya jadi punya pikiran curiga (baca: analitis-kritis) begini hehehe. Ceritanya, mau ikut-ikutan cara berpikir beliau. Masalahnya satu. HARGAnya itu, loh! Sebenarnya sih, kalau mengikuti naluri ibu-pelindung-anak dalam diri saya, saya akan membiarkan anak saya disuntik seribu jenis vaksin asal itu memang aman bagi anak saya. Tetapi kalau liat harganya? dan perlu ga,sih? karena menurut ibu saya, rupanya saya berhasil mengarungi hidup dan tumbuh dewasa dengan sehat tanpa vaksin ini.

Jadi, bagaimana keputusannya, nih?

saat ini sepertinya sih ditunda dulu, yah...sampai informasi/rejeki lebih lanjut hehehe

Venezuelanaysis.comニュース（完訳）
2008年3月10日
March 10th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke Venezuelanalysis.com

「伝統的」と呼ばれる穏健派左翼が暫定全国議長のウーゴ・チャベス・ベネズエラ大統領の新ベネズエラ統一社会主義党（PSUV）の日曜日の選挙で勝利を得た。

党副議長のアルベルト・ミューラー・ロハス氏は、中央幹部会の15人の正代議員と15人の補欠代議員の選挙結果を87.7％の開票が終わった後、記者会見で発表した。

写真上：投票に並ぶPSUV党員ら（Rafael Navarro, ABN）

「チャベス主義」運動右派と結びついた重要人物、ディオスダド・カベーヨ氏やフランシスコ・アリアス・カルデナス氏らは、中央幹部会に選ばれなかった（カベーヨ氏は、補欠代議員のリストに名を連ねた）一方で、急進左派の推奨候補、フェルナンド・ソト・ロハス氏、ヴラディミール・アコスタ氏、リディセ・ナバス氏らもまた選出されなかった。

現在、国営テレビVTVで政治トーク番組「Dando y Dando」のパネリストで、全ては祖国のために（PPT）での左翼、労働組合の長い経歴を持つアリストブーロ・イストゥリス元教育相が38,126票の最高得票を獲得した。

その次に、アダン・チャベス、マリオ・シルバ、ホルヘ・ロドリゲス、アントニア・ムニョス、カルロス・エスカラ、ノエリ・ポカテラ、バネッサ・ダビエス、シリア・フロレス、マリア・レオン、ニコラス・マドゥーロ、アリ・ロドリゲス・アラケ、エクトール・ロドリゲス、エリアス・ハウア、エリカ・ファリアスの各氏が順に選ばれた。

補欠代議員は、マリア･クリスティーナ・イグレシアス、ディオスダド・カベーヨ、エクトール・ナバロ、フレディ・ベルナール、ルイス・レジェス・レジェス、ハクリーン・ファリア、ラファエル・ラミレス、ウィリアム・ララ、ラモン・ロドリゲス・チャシン、ロドリゴ・カベサス、アナ・エリサ・オソリオ、ダリオ・ビバス、ジェリツァ・サンタエーヤ、タレク・エル・アイサミ、アルベルト・ミューラー・ロハスの各氏である。

15人の正大銀の中には、女性6名、先住民指導者1名、学生活動家1名、政治解説者3名が含まれる。6名がチャベス大統領の旧政党の第五共和国運動（MVR）の元党員、3名がPPT元党員、1名がベネズエラ共産党（PCV）元党員である。

中央幹部会正代議員全員が文民である一方、補欠代議員の4名が軍出身である。

社会主義者議会の活動家でPSUV内左派のカルロス・ルイス・リベロ氏は、より急進的な左派候補は、彼らの地元ではよく知られているが、全国レベルでは知名度が高くなく、それが全体の投票に影響を与えたと指摘した。

彼はまた「結果は、『内部右翼』として最も知られている党員らを拒否したことを示す」がしかし、この流れの敗北を必ずしも意味するものではないと論じた。

1999年に国民投票で承認されたベネズエラ・ボリバル憲法は、全ての登録政党が党内選挙を行なうことを要求している。現在のところ、PSUVだけがこの条件を満たしている政党である。

「政党が選挙をし、草の根から形成されるという事実は、ここベネズエラで最初の過程だ。初めて、政党組織が、小さなグループ、あるいは少数のエリート指導者らによってつくられていない」とミューラー氏は言明した。

PSUVは、社会主義への努力の中で、社会主義的考えを普及すること、党と党によって指導される政府のための政治的中核を形成すること、社会を動員することという3つの基本的任務を持った大衆政党となるだろう、とミューラー氏は論じた。

昨年4月にPSUVの「党員志望」として登録した570万の一番初めの人びとの中で選挙で投票できるものは、14,363の草の根「大隊」のそれぞれから選出された代表、そして補欠代表、各大隊の5つの委員会（コミュニケーション、政治・思想形成、物流、領土防衛、社会福祉事業）の代表の全100,541人の新党活動家が含まれていた。

有資格者の91％が、中央選挙委員会によって実施された日曜の選挙に参加した。

選挙への高水準の参加にもかかわらず、週の初めに配布されたチャベス大統領への公開書簡には、創立大会における手順と意志決定過程を批判した大会代議員の30～40％が署名した。

書簡は、「民主的参加、透明性、内部団結、活動党員資格の信任、党のイメージを弱めていると我々が感じている創立大会の開幕中に起こっている内部過程の抜本的修正を行なうことの必要性」を論じている。

特に書簡は、透明性を欠き、「革命過程を象徴する同志」が排除されていると言い、中央幹部会選挙の69人の候補者の選出過程を批判した。69人の候補者は、推薦過程を通じて選ばれたが、書簡はこの推薦過程が不明で、チャベス大統領が有資格候補の最終リストを吟味したことを指摘した。

書簡はまた、創立大会で「lo que diga Chávez」（チャベスが言うことは何でも）というスローガンを叫んだ幾人かの代議員の反応について、反対の声を黙らせ「議論を窒息死させる」目的だと言って疑問を投げかけた。

副議長としてミューラー氏の指名をチャベス大統領による「押し付け」と分類したEl Universalの記事に対して、退役将軍（編注：ミューラー氏のこと）は、これを「誤り」だと呼んでPSUVの構造において最高意思決定機関は、党総会であることを強調した。

「さまざまな副議長の指名を総会に大統領が提案し、その中から私を第一副議長として指名し、党総会で全会一致で可決されたことはよく知られている」とミューラー氏は明確にした。

ミューラー氏はまた、新しく選出された全国指導部は暫定的で、一年以内の次回指導部選挙では、全党員が投票できるようになるだろうと説明した。

ニュース原文URL：http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3257
翻訳：berkfavela
この記事は、クリエイティブ・コモンズ・ライセンスの下でライセンスされています。

Czy martwi was takie zagrożenie? Ja już się boję plastikowych butelek, kosmetyków, PCV, pestycydów i kobiet używających tabletek antykoncepcyjnych i ich moczu...

Por conta deste incentivo e da massiva participação, o torcedor do Flamengo é personagem de destaque em todas as vitórias do time. Não há resultado combinado com os três pontos que não mereça observações e loas ao comportamento da torcida. É nesta hora que eu empaco. Sei que algumas pessoas terão dificuldade em compreender, simplesmente por não quererem, ou em entender o que estou mostrando, mas não se pode esquecer o time, o trabalho feito pelo Joel Santana fora do campo e muito bem executado pelos jogadores a partir do instante em que a bola rola.

Não é apenas por atuar no Maracanã, oxigenado pela sua torcida, que o Flamengo está classificado para a Libertadores de 2008. Mais importante do que a energia saída das arquibancadas é o desempenho do Bruno, impecável sempre que solicitado; a desenvoltura do Léo Moura, aparentemente divorciado da irregularidade que sempre o caracterizou; o entrosamento e a segurança da dupla formada pelo Fábio Luciano e o Ronaldo Angelim e determinação da rapaziada do meio de campo, que corre para o Ibson brilhar.

Exalto os jogadores e o trabalho do Joel Santana por estar preocupado com esta insistência em só se falar da torcida. Não fosse o desempenho da equipe, a vontade dos jogadores e a organização que faz o Flamengo ser um time com toque de bola e coordenado e de nada adiantariam os gritos das arquibancadas.

Here's what I've learned about readjusting: It comes in waves. It's not often clear up front just all the things PCVs must readjust to, and a lot of it will ultimately depend on our own values and interests, what countries we served in and what habits of mind we developed as a response to our placements. In the first couple of days I just felt off-kilter in knowing that I was different but also being hyper-vigilant in what obstacles I might face during readjustment. This is some of what it's been like thus far.

The first couple of days after coming back wasn't anything earth shattering. At first I just felt indignant about how often everyone wanted to take me out to restaurants, simply how often we ate out. As we neared the end of each meal, I'd glance around the table and notice all the partially filled or untouched glasses of water. Thinking what a waste it was, I'd check my own glass and pour any remaining water into the Nalgene I still took everywhere. Walking up a hill on a very narrow strip to fill a 5L bucket had made water very precious to me. I was still in the habit of letting dishes pile till they brimmed over the basin to get the most out of the water needed for a wash.
The most immediate and striking difference I noticed in myself had to do with news media. BBC News, The New York Times and the Columbia Journalism Review were my home pages for three years prior to Peace Corps, and now I just couldn't wait to navigate away from those pages as soon as my web browser opened. NPR was probably what I missed most during my time abroad. It had been my soundtrack, the first noise to wake me up in the morning and the last as I set my alarm on sleep mode before bed. One of the other volunteers knew that I didn't have a radio, and when she COS-ed, she left me her low frequency radio. I spent hours coaxing the dial back and forth, screaming with joy when I finally found a garbled reception of Voices of America. It was as close to international news as I was going to get, and I missed NPR fiercely. I had even asked my boyfriend to send me CDs with podcasts of my favorite radio shows but those came far in between. He had also assigned himself to sending me a couple issues of Mother Jones every month.
Several layovers, 20-some odd hours later and over 9,000 miles away from Maseru, my access to news had 180-ed. The paradox here is that many volunteers serve because of the chance to have a better understanding of the world, but while we pedal through our service, we're also almost completely deprived of outside information. Americans are often typified as being the least globally conscious of the Western world, but regardless we are constantly plugged into networks of information. I knew as I got off the plane that I could once again drench myself in news, but now I wasn't certain I was ready for it. This 24 hour-access, CNN world seemed more an assault on my senses than anything else.
These were perhaps the easiest things to get over. Then I moved to Portland, OR.

I've wanted to live in Portland for quite a while. It was one of my goals in college to live in a place where I could bike or walk to work. I had first gotten the idea of living in Portland when one of my musician friends told me what a great scene it was for music. Gradually I heard about the bike culture, how environmentally conscious the city seems to be. Most of all, it was a small town feel in a big city, and that was that. It made it into my Top 25 of things to do.
What a time to move though. Almost immediately the change took hold. I noticed I was afraid most of the time. Of people. Of men. Of the canvassers standing on street corners.They were the worst. "Smile! Why don't you smile?! It's such a lovely day!" In fact, it was overcast and grey with a chance of showers on your umbrella-less ass, I wanted to say.
My instinct was to glare, and I'm afraid that the homeless standing in front of the grocery stores got the worst of it. After all this time I had been looking down everywhere I walked, trying to get from Point A to B as fast as humanly possible. Making eye contact for me had been largely disastrous in Lesotho. It was asking for trouble. But here were people who pleaded with their eyes and the only thing I could think of to protect myself was to glare. I always managed to look back on the ground before that glare came to complete fruition, but there it is. Glaring at the homeless. The poor and hungry.
But the worst days, and they came six days a week for more than a couple of months, I was afraid to go outside. It was a big deal for me. I spent hours beforehand drumming myself up. When I finally walked out the door, all I could feel was panic. My cheeks were burning and I wanted to move as fast as possible. Could everybody tell something was wrong with me?
I was especially afraid of men, and it was a distinct sense of fear. Of sheer and utter terror, actually. I didn't want them to look at me. I wanted to be a flash, a blur that they couldn't take notice of. The bike was my invisible cloak. Too fast to be noticed, too fast for details. Walking with a familiar crowd was a bit better, but I was still too scared to look side-to-side as we went down NW 21st. I was afraid, I once tried to explain, of how they would look at me. That look in their eyes, of arrogance, of cockiness, as though they thought they owned me. I felt suspicious of every male I had not previously known well, even of some acquaintances prior to Lesotho and good friends of friends. Prior to all of this, I had spent seven months constantly dealing with the topic of sex. Gender. Being a nontraditional female in Basotho culture. Men had beckoned to me across the fields. They had told me they'd go "easy" on me because I was young. They had tried to touch me and take photos of me. Some had berated me for my ethnicity while simultaneously proposing marriage. Get my number. Followed me. Insisted that we would have a sexual relationship in the future. Handed me big sticks to "think about at night." Chased me across fields. Some of them were coworkers.
Women did this too. They often told me how I would be stolen by a man and forced to become his wife; my pleas would be useless in a court of law. They proposed for their absent sons and brothers.
In all cultures we have habits of courtship. Flirtation, if you will. But I had never been in a culture where I felt first and foremost as a sexual object. So naturally, I was afraid of men.
One way to look at dressing up is as a form of flirtation. This is true of living in Northwest Portland: east of the West Hills, west of the Pearl and sandwiched between 21st and "Trendy-Third." For me, "dressed up" meant beyond sweat pants and a nondescript t-shirt. More than just a hoodie. Putting on clip-ons, for instance, was my version of dressing up. Seeing everyone walk around all nice and pretty, sometimes I just wanted to look nice too. But I thought I noticed more men turning their heads, and that frightened me into a baggy sweats submission.
I felt socially awkward. I didn't know what to say to anybody anymore. Each night I went out, I made what I thought was a string of social blunders: Not talking enough, bringing up inappropriate subjects with people I didn't know intimately, blurting out awkward sentences. A lot of this was probably in my head, but I was not used to being shy and silent. I had always been known for being able to talk through any situation, and that made me want to pluck up my courage all the more and force myself to speak.
I was so fragmented. Shattered and broken. I didn't know what I cared about anymore. What issues, larger than myself, was I willing to fight for? I had no purpose. I had no personality. I would never be normal again. Never have the same energy again. I wanted to hide. People were enervating and I had lost all the things about myself I had once treasured.
My days were empty.

It's hard to describe just how complete this feeling of despair and struggle was. There's really no way to over-dramatize it. I'm still trying to figure out how it began to change.
It had been four months since I returned and I was still struggling. I wrote to my boss and asked her if it was normal to take as long as I had to readjust. Peace Corps Medical gives three vouchers for counseling for all COSers. I hadn't used any because they are essentially useless. Three sessions? Three hours: One to explain what happened to you, one to explain how you felt, one to explain where you are now. And where are you by the end of it? In the same place with no advice and three hours of emotional energy wasted. Maria assured me that four months was fine, that of course I felt scared. I had been in a country for seven months adjusting to completely different cultural cues.
One day I was talking to a good friend online. She was traveling around Europe and had just stopped in Istanbul. What's it like? I had always wanted to go there. The idea of figs, apricots, spices and beautiful mosaics enchanted me like they've probably enchanted the rest of the world. I asked her a string of questions about her favorite stop thus far, including what most shocked her.
"Well, the biggest thing has been how hard it is to swallow all your feminist bents when all the men are like, 'Yes please' and whatever when you walk by them. They just want you to buy their shit, but they'd never never dare say so much as an unsolicited 'how are you?' to a local woman--or an obviously Muslim/Middle Eastern woman. So mostly you just want to turn around and go 'Fuck you, Buddy, lay off!' but you know they won't get it."
Her experience began to sound like my own.
"You cannot people-watch, it's impossible, except for kids and women," she said.
And suddenly it clicked for me. That's the difference. Ours is a people-watching society. It's okay to look at other people in our culture and not feel like they expect something in return because we all do it. In my mind, that was the beginning. When things started to go right again.

This is not to say that Lesotho wasn't wonderful, but recovery is always from the bad stuff, the bad marks on your credit line that follow you for years. I had days there when I asked myself whether I wasn't lowering my standards of happiness and days when I felt just how welcoming the culture could be. My experience is a conglomeration of internal and external factors--my convictions, their cultural homogeneity, Globalism exacerbating racial tensions, my sex and gender, their perceived gender roles and ultimately, the needs that I must address to remain happy and functional.
I look at the pictures of other PCVs sometimes and wish I could see Lesotho the way they do and the way I once did. I have people and things I miss. Like the wind plastering me to the top of the haystack of rocks behind my house. Like the bells konking together as the sheep climb the hills. Like one of my coworkers from the Ministry of Environment who spent a lot of time telling me about his travels to Israel and what the Basotho have to learn from them. My ausi, who wants to become a doctor and was shy the same way that I became shy. The volunteers who offered their time to me, to catch me up on permaculture. My teachers, who spent some of their personal time tutoring me on language because they wanted me to reach the "advanced" level. Like my 'm'e, who shares the same birthday as me.