Conjunctivitis

September 22

No, I don’t have conjunctivitis. But I feel like I should be acting Boris the Rusisan computer programmer from Goldeneye (the mid-1990s Bond movie, if you haven’t seen it you’re just going to have to read this post for the non-references.  See this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXW02XmBGQw&feature=related). I should be standing up and yelling “I am invincible!” But I’m not going to. Because once I do, I know the big vat of nitrogen whatever will explode and freeze me in my celebratory pose. Except in my case it would be a big vat of pinkeye.

So what am I going on about here? Well, let’s see. A week ago, my teaching partner Rachel came down with the visible symptoms of conjunctivitis about halfway through the day, leaving me to fend for myself (read: teaching) for two days. The secretary at my school? Pinkeye. By Wednesday, one of my students came in with it. He was sent home immediately. Thursday morning my sister woke up with it. Bad too, in both eyes. By Friday night, Gabriel, a Dominican guy who we hang out every so often looked in the mirror in my apartment. His eyes were red. By the next day he looked like a boxer at the end of a title fight. By this morning (Monday), Laura, the library coordinator was out with pinkeye. By lunch Rachel (the co-teacher) was showing symptoms again. She went home, leaving us with about half of the staff at the school actually AT the school. Even another volunteer, who up until now had been able to fend off contracting this stuff, was commenting about possibly having itchy eyes towards the end of the day.

Now, there are a few other people who haven’t had the pleasure of missing work because they want to scrape out their eyes, but I’m particularly proud of myself, if that’s okay with you, because my sister, who I usually eat meals with (and did even when she had the hardcore symptoms) had it. Added on to that is the fact that the person who co-teaches with me has now had it twice in a one week span. For now I think I’ll wait until everyone I know is free and clear of the symptoms before I start perfecting on my Russian accent, but that doesn’t mean I’m not practicing clicking my pen in front of the mirror.




Update: September 24

So. One of the volunteer writing/art teachers now has “the junk” (yes that’s the name that has been bestowed up on it), leaving 2 out of 5 adolescent program teachers at the school over the last two days. It’s been pretty crazy. Thankfully, there’s free HIV testing tomorrow at my school, meaning no classes. Which is awesome. We’re giving out a half-pound of rice to everyone who gets tested too. I think I have to do that job. I'm going to take a few minutes to be one of the rice giver-outers, which I’m sure will be an experience, especially when if we come across someone who is distraught they’re HIV positive. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to see me there telling them, “Hey, look on the bright side! Here’s a free half-pound bag of rice!” Yeah right.

Update: September 30

My eyes are legitimately invincible.