They Might as Well Have Saved the Extra Bedroom and Made Me a Pallet in the Bathroom

Greetings! Writing to you from an internet cafe and bookstore down the street from my school, where I just ate the first meal that has not made me feel very very ill. Hooray!

To catch you all up: not to give TMI, but here are the facts, have had diarrhea for a week. I expected it to happen at some point, and it was not terribly uncomfortable, and I was still able to eat the food that was served to me and enjoy life, so I stayed hydrated and went about my day. However, 3 days ago I began feeling very ill. First, the allergies. I still have not pin pointed what I am allergic to. My house? My school? The car exhaust? The whole city after it rains? Thursday during school was the worst day for allergies. I woke up and sounded like I had emphysema and it went down hill from there. My eyes were so swollen that it hurt to keep them open. My nose ran and ran and ran and ran. I used up two entire packages of tissues before class was even over, when prior to this, I have never used up a single pack of tissues in my whole life. I sneezed constantly, and the inside of my head was so itchy I wanted to take steel wool to it. Poor Helen tried to accomodate me by moving to the patio for lessons, but even outside it was still really bad. On the way home from school, I stopped at the farmacia for an antihistamine, but I am deathly allergic to the main ingredient in stuff like Clariten and Alavert. So I can only take Benadryl, but there is no such thing as Benadryl here, it is called something else or simply sold by single ingredient. So I had the pleasure of trying to say, "I need some allergy medicine, but also, I am allergic to allergy medicine." I finally bought something called Panadol, manufactured by gsk. I told Erin that if I took it, and my airway started swelling, I needed to be rushed to the hospital and given epinephrine. Thankfully, that did not happen.

So, Thursday at lunch I just felt very nauseous and it was all I could do to eat the food, which was broth with rice in it and a side of boiled carrot, potato and corn. As the day wore on, I felt sicker and sicker. Erin and I went out for a bit to wander around the city and get her a cellphone, and we had pizza and cokes for dinner. It was good, but I remained nauseous. Around 2am I woke up thinking, "I need to throw up. But that is impossible, because I have diarrhea, and it is not fair to have both at the same time." So, went to the bathroom and soon enough was violently throwing up. For some reason, I guess the toilet bowls here are shallower or something, but it kept splashing back up on my face, which was revolting. So there I was, 2am in Central America, covered in my own vomit, with no toilet paper in the bathroom. I rinsed off my face and got my flashlight and searched the house for toilet paper, but there was none to be found. So I took the napkins in with me and got sick again. Once I was done throwing up, I felt a lot better and that lasted for 15 glorious minutes and then I was feeling terrible again. And speaking of no toilet paper, this is a mistake I made once, thought I would never make again, and then keep on making. 3 or 4 times now I have used the bathroom without first checking that there is paper on hand.

I got back in bed, having decided not to go to school in the morning. And then, 30 minutes before class, I felt guilty for standing Helen up, so stumbled to the shower and then to school. I was rocking in my chair all morning, I felt so bad. Helen decided to postpone my exam until Monday. Halfway through class another student, Eli, asked if we wanted to walk to the Mennonite bakery, but I felt too bad. I asked him to get me a blueberry yogurt, which I was able to keep down. I spent the rest of the day feeling like I could vomit at any minute, and was more thankful than you can imagine to find Gatorade at the tienda. Last night, Erin and I decided to go to a movie, but both felt so bad that we never made it. We got as far as the Parque Central, went to McDonalds, went to the store, went home. The whole time I was out, I kept silently praying "Please let me get home before I need to throw up again." When we got back home, I threw up a tiny bit, and then fell asleep with my clothes on and the light on. But I slept for 12 hours and woke up today feeling like I did not want to die. When I feel that nauseous I have absolutely no perspective. I tell myself things like, "You are not cut out for traveling." "You need to become a nurse, buy a little house, and never leave Nashville again." I had decided that it was stupid to learn Spanish anyway. No one cares if I am bilingual or not, everyone speaks English anyway. But today, sans nausea, am feeling like perhaps I should stay and slog through this thing til August.

The nice thing about being sick is that I have not been eating much and nothing at home, so I have not had to worry about being served more food than anyone else. I sat with my family at lunch today, and while what they were eating (cheese fritters and salsa) was not appetizing, the smell of it did not turn my stomach, which is an improvement.

So, enough about icky icky illness. I mentioned that I purchase El Principito the other day, and I sat in the park and read the first chapter (that is when the bird pooped on my head). When I went home that night, A., who has all but moved into my bed, read more of it to me and then read Caperucita Roja (I think I spelled that correctly, Little Red Riding Hood) and Bambi to me. If you keep giving her more books, she will read and read and read. It is nice because when I get out of school, I am so fried that all I want is to sleep and all A. wants is to hang out, so we get books and get in bed and I nap and she reads aloud.

The key for me here is to keep moving. If I stay at home too long or at school too long or even at the same coffee shop too long, I get a little blue. One of the reasons I chose nursing is for the variety. I never want to live the same day twice. As long as I keep moving around and seeing and learning new things (provided I feel well enough to do so) I remain in good spirits. The big activity for today was going to a matinee of Robin Hood, but the movies do not start until 4ish and my friend Ali gets in town at 3, so will save that for another day. Rather, am going to try to find my way to the super mercado in Zone 3. I live in Zone 1 and have been to two non super mercados, just regular mercados, looking for Kleenex and peanut butter and have not found either.

The other night at dinner, A.s father asked me to translate a text message he had received. The text read: "Whether side by side, or miles apart, you will always have a place in my heart." It was followed with: "Send to 15 people you love." But before I had read that far, I stopped, and panicked, thinking, "Does he have a girlfriend?! Am I supposed to translate this in front of A.s mom who may or may not be his wife?!" I still do not know what their relationship is. K. has referred to him as A.s father and also as her spouse, but he does not live there full time and neither of them wears a wedding band. Anyway, I am terrible at translating, and it was thankfully a mass text, so no harm done, but I was so worried for those few minutes.

Speaking of A.s father, he left three days ago and he took the rooster with him. Took the hens, too. I rejoiced when I learned of this, but according to A. he is coming back with them soon. I have NO idea what kind of errand you take with 3 live chickens that does not involve killing them, but we will soon find out. Speaking of killing things, I did a little research and learned that digitalis is fatal to dogs in doses of 6g or higher. But I do not think I have the heart for it, even if it is to put them out of their misery.

Found out yesterday that two friends from Nashville as well as my bestie, Nat, will be traveling to Antigua the first week of July. The plan is forthem to find a beach on either the east or west coast and I will meet them there. Am really looking forward to seeing them, as well as black sand beaches!

Even though I felt like death yesterday, it was the best class so far. I started crying in class on Thursday, because I was so frustrated, but yesterday seemed really fluid. Little by little, I am able to communicate better with my family. I still completely mash words together and abuse the tenses horribly, but we understand one another a little better each day.

Okie dokie, artichokies, be well. Talk soon.