Last week I bought a bike and it changed my life!
A volunteer couple who lived in a town called La Vigia only 23km away from me finished their service and left for America last week. We had talked about me buying the wife’s bike a while back but I had forgotten about it until she called to ask if I was still interested in the transaction. She promised me a few other surprises too, if I made the journey to their house on the Wednesday that they were leaving. So after a nice early morning run, I made my way by bus to their small little campo. I got off the bus and walked a nice and easy 4km from the into their town and cute two bedroom shack. They were busy packing up and getting ready to leave so I scored big! Richard and Cynthia outfitted me with snorkeling gear (two sets if you wanna come down and try one out!), a beach towel, a bike pump and repair kit, and a hotdog and ramen noodle/cabbage salad lunch. It was great to see their site and of course to get myself a bike and I’m only upset that I didn’t visit them earlier in my service, they were so close!
A volunteer couple who lived in a town called La Vigia only 23km away from me finished their service and left for America last week. We had talked about me buying the wife’s bike a while back but I had forgotten about it until she called to ask if I was still interested in the transaction. She promised me a few other surprises too, if I made the journey to their house on the Wednesday that they were leaving. So after a nice early morning run, I made my way by bus to their small little campo. I got off the bus and walked a nice and easy 4km from the into their town and cute two bedroom shack. They were busy packing up and getting ready to leave so I scored big! Richard and Cynthia outfitted me with snorkeling gear (two sets if you wanna come down and try one out!), a beach towel, a bike pump and repair kit, and a hotdog and ramen noodle/cabbage salad lunch. It was great to see their site and of course to get myself a bike and I’m only upset that I didn’t visit them earlier in my service, they were so close!
Around 1:30pm (prime sun time), I got on the bike and made my way back home, up a few hills and through a few towns. I made it to the town I work in on Wednesdays, Copey, and stopped at my favorite doñas house there for juice and a shower. When I rolled up to her gate sweaty and with a bike in tow, she exclaimed, “Bea, where’d that come from?” and I replied, “I rode it here from La Vigia!” They couldn’t believe I had actually ridden and not just strapped it to the front of a bus. They were equally as surprised to see that I hadn’t die in the heat or on the highway. My doña/grandma couldn’t stop
Now that I have my bike, it makes traveling around my town, visiting doñas and running errands so much easier. I don’t know how I survived so long without one. It even has a basket in the front for my loose ends and a basket on the back for carrying heavy loads. Well worth the expensive ($60) investment.
So last week was great. But as I’ve learned in Peace Corps, all good things come to an end (or so sang Nelly Furtado) and here's why:
1. My bike got a flat.
Two muchachos were riding my new bike (without permission!) and they took it down to the beach where it got a flat tire...in the back wheel. EUGH! I called my uncle in Australia and he said, “Damn that’s a bitch to fix” and patiently described the process to me. I listened fully hoping I would be able to fix my own bike, but alas, after a challenging few minutes staring at the retro bike and it’s confusing chain parts, I called upon a passing neighborhood kid and sent him to fix it at the local tire shop.
2. I had a bug infestation.
It started raining last night and I ran into my room only to find thousands upon thousands of tiny little bugs flying around my room. I spent the better part of an hour killing them while skyping my bffl Emily. I’m sure she thinks I’m nuts. Our conversation was constantly interjected with exclamations like “ewww gross they’re spurting blue blood” or “ahhhh thousands” or “my floor looks like it has bug dandruff.” It was a mess to clean up this and I still twitch thinking about the bugs that landed on me constantly throughout that sleepless night.
3. My feet are messed up.
I’m pretty sure my feet will never be the same after this. I have and will forever have ingrown toenails, a wart and blisters on the bottom of my feet, a fungus on my left big toe (again!), and a painful to the touch third right toe. And then there’s the fact that they’re constantly dirty, sandy, itchy and cracking that accompanies the aforementioned problems. But...at least my host mom paints them with designs every two weeks so it’s not as obvious how nasty these little buggers are. Nothing like a beautiful pink and blue flower covering up a nasty ingrown!
Upon reflection, as I told a volunteer friend, I’m not being a very good PCV if the things that bother me most are the bugs, flat tires, gross feet and variables in projects I can't control. After all, this is what I signed up for, right? So I told myself to buck up, let myself miss how easy things are in America (sometimes), get over it and remember how insignificant these problems actually are. And I’m putting back on my motivation hat and charging full speed ahead this week!
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