Argentina Part 3: Jolley Good Wong Graber

[The boys horsing around in Iruya]

After a few days, our volunteer coordinator Courtney Wong joined us in Cordoba to form Team Jolley Good Wong Graber. Me, Kevin Good, Zach Graber, and Courtney Wong. And yes, the name was my idea. How sad would it have been if we had had someone with a normal name. I think that may be a new travel guideline: Must have fun name.

Team Good Graber when to the Salta region on Saturday, while team Jolley Wong stayed a bit longer in Cordoba, since Courtney arrived a little late.

After riding in the coldest bus on the planet, Courtney and I arrived in Salta and caught a bus to Humahuaca to meet up with the boys. Or so we thought. After receiving some of the most incomprehensible text speak messages from Kevin we finally realized they were in Iruya, a town 4 hours farther north of Humahuaca. Unfortunately by the time we arrived, there were no more buses to Iruya until the next morning. Fortunately Humahuaca is a lovely little town.

[Humahuaca]

I was struck by the fact I could understand people’s Spanish again! It was also amazing at how nice everyone way. People in Cordoba were not particularly friendly, but here everyone said hello to us on the street, locals and tourists alike. Everyone was so pleasant.

[Humahuaca]

Courtney and I caught the 8:30 am bus to Iruya the next morning. I realized as I got onto the bus I had left my travel blanket back at the hostel and asked the driver if I had enough time to go and get it. At first he said no, but a few minutes later he indicated I could go get it if I hurried. I heard a collective groan from the other passengers to which I gave them a mental ‘fuck all yall, I want my blanket’. I ran 2 blocks to the hostel, found the blanket, and was back in less than 5 minutes. The bus attendant hadn’t even started checking peoples’ tickets yet. So there.

[Iruya]

Through our deciphering of Kevin’s texts, we gathered that he and Zach though Iruya was one of the most beautiful places they had seen. At first I was skeptical; the geography strongly resembled Big Bend Park in. However slowly but surely I saw what they saw. As we came closer and closer to Iruya, an astoundingly beautiful, cloud covered valley. Honestly, that view alone was worth the 8 hours of travel.

[Jolley Good Wong Graber in Iruya]

We arrived in Iruya and Team Jolley Good Wong Graber was reunited. I got off the bus and immediately noticed the boys had gotten quite a bit of sun since we left them in Cordoba. Courtney noticed as well. It must have triggered our motherly side because we couldn’t help but asking if they had been wearing sunscreen, did they have sunscreen, did they want to borrow sunscreen. They didn’t seem to believe us that they had gotten quite so sun kissed, but I assure you the Paraguayans will comment when they go home.

[The gals horsing around Iruya]

We only spent a few hours with the boys before they caught a bus back to Salta. Courtney and I did some exploring, though not much hiking. The altitude was getting to me and I'm out of shape for vertical walking. Give me a flat road and I'll walk all day, put a bit of an incline and I'm a goner. That evening we cooked up some tasty stir-fry, chatted with the owners of the hostel, and marveled at the clouds rolling into the valley.

[Iruya]

The next morning we resolved to get up early and go for a hike, but the valley was still enveloped in a snuggie of fog. We abandoned those plans and slept in. I did a bit more walking around the next day as we waited for bus back to Humahuaca and then Purmamarca for the night. As we left Iruya, a storm rolled in from the south and the bus with hit by a short hail storm. Thankfully things cleared up for the rest of the day.

Argentina Part 2: Cordoba-I still speak Spanish right?

[Zening it up at the art museum]

Upon arriving in Cordoba, Kevin immediately pissed off a baggage handler by removing his pack by himself from the luggage area under the bus because it was blocking the rest of the luggage. I had done the same thing moments earlier but because my pack was a bit lighter and the handler’s back was turned, I accomplished the task without him noticing. The baggage handler yelled at Kevin while I quietly tiptoed behind another bus.

[Cordoba]

We decided to find a hostel to drop off our stuff. I’ve hosted several couch surfers lately so I was hoping to be able to use the site myself during this trip, but the hosts never came through, which was very disappointing, so we stayed in a hostel the entire time. Fortunately the hostel was about USD$9 a night, so it is not like we were breaking the bank.

[Church]

I noticed several things.
1) The city was incredible clean. The first day or two I would find myself looking at the sidewalks as we walked, memorized by the lack of trash.
2) Cordobian accents made me question my ability to speak Spanish. I kid you not; I had no idea what those people were saying half of the time.
3) Cordobians are not nearly as friendly as Paraguayans
4) People don’t try to cheat you at the bus terminals. Everyone pays the same price.
5) Cordobians, especially in the downtown area are very well dressed, and the women are very skinny.
6) I love smoothies. Almost every little café and restaurant served smoothies and they were delicious.

Highlights
• Artisan fair
• Being in a clean city were things work like they’re supposed to
• Meeting Kevin’s sister and hanging out with her host family, Jorge and company
• Finding a bank that would change guaranies into pesos
• Cooking jambalaya and risotto in the hostel
• Adorable deaf puppy at the hostel
• Awesome art museum

• Zoo

[Baby Hippo at the Zoo]

Argentina Part 1: Have a good trip…No jail…or Herpes

[Kevin Good, Me, Zach Graber (Gray-ber)]

Our trip to Argentina got off to a rough start. Kevin, Zach and I spent Sunday night with another volunteer about an hour outside of the capital. We got up Monday morning, ready to head to the bus terminal to go to Cordoba, only to find out there was a bus strike. We decided to take our chances and head to the road to see if the buses were indeed running. So with a final adios from our friends and a last bit of sage advice from Lindsay ‘Have a good trip…No jail…or Herpes’ … we were off.

Thankfully we were about to catch one of the few buses running and made it to the Asuncion terminal. Once we were there, we were told there were no buses available to Cordoba until Wednesday probably due to residual Carnival travel and Womens’ Day, a national holiday.

Determined to leave the country, we caught a bus to Resistencia, a major bus hub along the way to Cordoba in hopes of catching a bus there. We arrived in Resistencia that evening and found there were no buses to Cordoba from there either. So we took a bus to Santa Fe, the next bus hub on the way to Cordoba. We arrived in Santa Fe and finally were able to catch a bus to Cordoba, where we arrived around 10am.

Wheat's Wrong With You?

Part 1: My Shitty Knees

I’ve had knee issues for a long while. I remember being in gym class in high school and wondering if the other girls were in as much pain as I was. Freshman year of college I went to the doctor and found out I have a common issue where the cup my knee cap sits in is too shallow, so it is really easy for my knee cap to move around excessively. The doctor also mentioned the muscles around my knee weren’t holding the cap in place properly. The diagnosis, physical therapy and waiting until I ‘got older’. Yes, the doctor actually said I just had to wait until I got older so my muscles would naturally become less flexible. Thanks doc.

The physical therapy and a knee brace to use during exercise, took the edge off somewhat. Still waiting to see if ‘getting older’ helps, 6 years later no improvement thus far.

When I came to PC, I was completely unable to exercise, so the knee problems came back with a vengeance. Once I was out of training and living in my own house, I tried to get back on the exercise train, but it didn’t work this time. For over a year I’ve been taking 2-3 400mg ibuprofen and 2-3 500mg Tylenol a day, every day. On a bad day this might go up to 4-5 of each. If I’m traveling I would take one of each every 3-4 hours. It was the only thing that worked.

Evidently this is a lot of ibuprofen and Tylenol. After startling a few friends with the quantity of meds I was taking, I talked to the Peace Corps nurse. The nurse wasn’t worried about me taking 2 ibuprofenes a day, but evidently 3 is the tipping point where I need to take an additional medication, Ranitidina, to protect my stomach.

I never actually knew ibuprofen could be bad for your stomach lining causing a whole host of nasty side effects. Evidently I was the only one. Sucks for me.

Part 2: Gluten

I didn’t know much about celiac disease until one of the girls in my group in Peace Corps had it. Being the information junkie I am, I did quite a bit of googleing until I had familiarized myself with the topic. In people with celiac disease the immune system reacts abnormally to gluten (a protein in wheat, barley, and rye), causing small intestine inflammation and damage. According to a 2003 University of Maryland study, as many as 1 in 133 people have celiac, though it may be even more common since a large number of cases are undiagnosed. Don’t worry, I don’t have celiac.

Once I had gluten on my radar, I noticed it showing up from time to time in health and diet articles of varying reliability. Admittedly, going gluten-free is one of the newer fast weight loss fads, as can be seen with an increasing number of gluten-free products.

However I did notice that many of the health, not weight loss, focused articles mentioned another issue, wheat intolerance. It is basically a non-allergic, but still negative reaction gluten. People with celiac have very strong symptoms that can occur within hours of eating a small amount of gluten. Wheat sensitivity is a more difficult to detect because the symptoms take longer to manifest, sometimes 2-3 days.

What caught my attention was that aching joints was one of the most frequently listed symptoms. In addition to knee pain, I’ve also had unexplainable aches in my hips and pain in my hands severe enough I had become concerned I might have carpal tunnel.

I’ve also had inflammation problems. When I go for even a short walk my hands will swell painfully. Since coming to Paraguay I’ve also had such severe swelling in my legs that it felt like my calves were going to burst open. During my first summer in particular, I can’t tell you how many sietas I spent with my legs up in the air against a wall trying to get the inflammation to go down. When I googled causes of chronic inflammation, wheat and dairy issues always at the top of this list for dietary causes of inflammation.

Part 3: The Experiment

(Note: While there are scientific tests for celiac disease and wheat allergies, they are notoriously unreliable. Also they often don’t work for wheat intolerance because the effects are more subtle)

Here is what we know. I’ve been taking obscene amounts of ibuprofen to combat joint pain and inflammation. Ibuprofen causes digestive issues. Wheat intolerance causes joint pain and inflammation. Wheat intolerance stems from digestive problems. Did the Ibuprofen cause wheat intolerance? Hmm. So about a month and a half ago I decided to do an experiment called an elimination diet.

I couldn’t stop taking the ibuprofen cold turkey, but I could cut out wheat. So I did. After a week and a half I was down to 1-2 ibuprofen and Tylenol a day. I kept at it. Taking 2 of each became my new ‘bad day’ dose. Some days I didn’t take anything. I continued the experiment during my trip to Argentina. Twice I was in buses for 20-24 hours. I took meds twice during each trip, as opposed to my usual dose every 2-3 hours. Once we were in Argentina we had ice cream several days in a row. I was perplexed because the ache started to come back. Turns out most ice cream has gluten L. Very very sad news.

When I got back from Argentina phase 2 of the elimination diet started, reintroduction of wheat. From Monday to Thursday of last week I ate wheat. On Wednesday I started feeling occasional pain, but I chalked it up to walking Tucker twice a day. By Friday the pain was back. Today is Saturday and I’m fighting the urge to take ibuprofen. I stopped eating wheat again yesterday. I’m hoping that I don’t have to wait a week and a half again for the pain to subside.

Part 4: Conclusion

I currently have a wheat intolerance.

I don’t know if taking large quantities ibuprofen damaged my digestive system and caused the wheat intolerance. Maybe I’ve had a wheat intolerance all along and the hideous amounts of bread I had to eat with my host family during training pushed it to a new level and the ibuprofen exacerbated the effect. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.

The next step is to stop eating wheat again for a longer period of time, I’m shooting for 6 months. That should be long enough for any damage caused by the meds to heal. If the problems come back again when I introduce wheat again, then I probably really am wheat intolerant. We shall see.

Now why did you need to go through that huge TMI overshare? Because wheat intolerance often has a genetic component. If you’re related to me, which I assume most of my readership is, you may unknowingly be wheat intolerant as well. Even if you’re not related, many cases of wheat intolerance go undiagnosed.

For me it was worth the experiment to find out. I’m not at all happy I can’t eat bread, or cereal, or tragically, ice cream at least not for a little while. But I am happy to finally have a way to control my knee pain other that waiting to get older.

Fitness Competition Summary

I need to write something a little more personal, but this will have to do for now. This is the write-up I did for my boss, country director, and a few people in between. Its very numbery, but that is what admin people like in a report, right?

[Superwoman!]

Primary Instructor: Lyndsay Jolley (Community Economic Development G30)

Secondary Instructor: Julia Heitz (Environmental Education G34)

Guest Presenter: Topic-Soy: Rachael Graham (Crop Extension G31)

Guest Presenter: Awards Ceremony: Dr. Luis Valiente

The fitness program in Dr. J.E. Estigarribia began in November 2010, with an exercise class three times a week, attended by 5-8 women. I began by inviting a few teachers who had expressed interesting aerobics classes or those who I knew already walked on their own. Other than this, I didn’t need to do any publicity, the women promoted the class, and then the competition, completely on their own.

The fitness competition began on January 7^th 2011 at lasted until February 7, 2011. We had 101 registered women participants; 51 completed the final weigh-in. It was free to attend the exercise class and nutrition presentations, but to officially enter the competition, and thus be eligible for prizes, women paid 5,000G and did an initial weigh-in. The participants with the most points would win. Points were distributed in the following manner:

Point Structure:

1pt- nutrition presentation/cooking class

2pts- exercise class or outside group exercise activity

4pts- per kilo lost

To encourage the women to be active outside of my classes, I created a captain system. A captain was a participant who had signed a contract with me to hold their own exercises activities, usually group walks, and honestly record the attendees and hours on a form I created. The captains were required to submit those forms to me at the end of each week.

[Even the little ones get in on the action]

We had 5 total captains, 3 of whom were consistently active. They logged 61, 111, and 160 hours of exercise per group. In total, 337 hours of outside exercise were logged by the captains and their exercise groups.

On average, 41 registered participants attended each class of my 14 exercise classes. Also, we often had unregistered women attend the class just to see what it was like and about 5-10 children who regularly observed or partially participated in the classes. I would estimate there were 50-55 women and guests at each class on average. I would also estimate of the 101 registered women, 60-70 continued to actively participate in the fitness events. My fitness class logged 547 hours of exercise.

[Name tags]

On average, 28 women attended each of the 5 health presentations.

The participants lost 85.9k (188lbs) total. The top 5 women lost 30.6k (67.2lbs) between them.

At the end of the competition we held an awards ceremony with about 55 people to celebrate the accomplishments of all the women, hand out certificates of participation and final awards.

Challenges:

· Finding a location. Most fields were not willing to ask the men to stop playing soccer for an hour so we could have class. Let me repeat that. The only woman's exercise class couldn't find space because the boys needed to play football, which they could have done in any number of different locations. Yes, I'm a little sore on that point.

· Keeping the exercises challenging but fun.

Successes:

· Not having to do any publicity. Everything spread via word of mouth.

· ~55 people attended the final awards ceremony even though it rained

· Women seeing tangible results

· Passing by the field on a non-exercise class day, and observing the women doing their own walks, stretches, and other exercises, without my guidance.

Changes for Competition #2 (beginning the end of March 2011)

· Increase fee to join competition to buy nicer prizes and ensure the event covers all of its own expenses.

· Transfer more of the responsibilities of the classes to the women, possibly through the creation of 2-3 concurrent exercise classes in different parts of the city. This would also increase the number of women who have access to the classes.

· Recruit more guest presenters and instructors

· Find ways other than weight loss, to measure participant progress and successes.

Health Topics Presented:

· Diabetes

· The importance of reading nutrition labels

· The health benefits of soy

· Cooking with soy

· Cooking with fruits and vegetables

· Portions

· Calculating intake and expenditure

· Health and weight-loss myths

· Avoiding ‘snake oil’/ quick fix diets and medications

· Food groups

· What is a normal weight/Body Mass Index Calculation

Primary Exercises:

· Yoga

· Pilates

· Zumba

· Strength training (with old bottles filled with water)

· Sprinting drills

· Plyometrics

· Group walks

· Exercise games

· Dances

Chaocitos Mo, Bienvenidos Tucker

It was raining, he was cute, with big brown eyes, crying, and he came right up to me. I let him in to get out of the rain, let him out again when it was done, but he came back, and hasn't tried to leave since. I'm not emotionally strong enough to say no to that. So I have a dog now... His name is Tucker.

Moab left to go live with Julia, but there was about 2-3 days when I had all 3 pets at the house. Quite a zoo.

[Feeding time at the Jolley Zoo]

Goodbye Old Fridge (and 1 month's salary)

About a week ago the refrigerator part of my refrigerator stopped working. The freezer part, which is not separated from the refrigerator section, was thus doing double duty. I was too busy at the time to do anything about it because of the exercise competition.

[Old Fridge]

I decided not to try and repair the old one, because it was absolutely ancient, never worked really well, was as loud as a freight train, and this was probably just the beginning of its slow death. I've also decided that I'll ask my follow-up to pitch in a bit so that will take the edge off farther down the road.
[Old Fridge. Note the compartment at the top, sans door or partition of any sort. That is the freezer]

Yesterday I was finally able price some new ones in the stores. I first looked around for used ones, but I wasn't able to find any and none of my friends knew of any for sale. I decided to buy one from a friend of mine because I knew that she would allow me to divide the payments of the fridge without charging me interest.

I got the cheapest fridge I could from there, but it still is going to set me back an entire month's salary ouch. Fortunately I've split it up into 3 payments, so that will make it a bit easier, but still.

That said, I'm amazed by how nice the new fridge is. Its so quiet I keep looking at it to make sure its still plugged in. I'm so happy to have an actual freezer, the old one had a freezer, but since it wasn't separated it couldn't even keep my ice cream from melting. Maybe I'll actually be able to have ice now! The door closes completely, I had to use a bike tire to close the other one, so less air escapes. So I'm also guessing it is far more energy efficient, so I won't be surprised if my electricity bill goes down.

[New Fridge. Note the closed freezer compartment on the top]