Even the mighty fall.....

You know, I have always said that I have a cast iron constitution.... These things always come back to haunt me!!!!!! I have had my first case of 3rd World ebola and am now able to talk about it in humorous terms. I came down with a whopping case of Giardia at the beginning of the week that about killed me! From what I understand, Giardia is a bacteria that produces anaerobically in your stomach and intestines. That basically means that you get the screaming stomach pain, the horrible diahrrea, and horrible throw-ups. All of this is made more difficult by the whole outhouse experience, I must say. All I can tell you, my friends, is that you haven't lived until you have tried to position two opposite ends of your body over the same whole in the floor. THIS is what I came into the Peace Corps for.... Adventure, raw adventure.
Despite my brush with ebola, I have had a great couple of weeks. Tomorrow we start Practice School at the University here in Chisinau and I am really excited to get started on the giving portion of the program. So far I have just been absorbing information and trying desperately to learn Romanian, so I haven't felt much like I was really doing what I came here for. Now is my chance to show my stuff and do a little teaching. I am ready and thrilled!
You might remember that I was headed out to Cahul last week to visit my new host family and the university in Cahul. That was great. I got there on the weekend of a big international folk festival called Nufurul Alb. There were folk dance teams and folk singers from all over the (Eastern) world. It was pretty amazing. My new host family was in charge of showing the team from Romania around, so I got to go back to where they were staying and see them dance and listen to them sing til 3 in the morning. It was stunning to see! My new family seems fabulous. They are cool with me being in the kitchen and promise to teach me all about canning summer vegetables and harvesting the grapes in the fall. My university colleagues are all about mid to late 20's and gorgeous! Jeremy, tell Tidwell and the crew they really need to come visit. Man, can I fix them up! Pottery ladies, I am still looking for pottery opportunities. I can learn how to create baskets from corn, carve wood and paint eggs, but so far, no kilns in sight!
The next few weeks I will be finishing up in northern Moldova, then I will head south and get ready for the University there. More later.....