Week 5

Well, I was sick for more than half the week.  It all started Sunday morning.. I went to brush my teeth and wash up for the day.  Went back to my tent to lie down for a bit.  Greg came back and asked if I wanted breakfast.  I was late.  I didn’t feel like eating.  I asked if I had a fever: I felt really strange.  Greg soon came back with wash rags and a basin of water.  I was burning up.  Mrs. Kim came in later with a thermometer, the kind you put in your ear.  I read somewhere from a 104 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit.  I didn’t feel like talking much and I didn’t know if it was really cold or hot.  At one point, my extremities started to go numb.  :/  Mrs. Durante came and gave me a hot and cold therapy for my feet.  She also brought this gel to rub on my body to make me sweat.  Oh and I wasn’t sweating at all.  I was burning up so much, Greg helped me to take a cold shower.  That was painful.  We took a short walk outside and at one point I felt better.  It was very difficult to walk without assistance because I was so dizzy.  I lay on a sofa on the patio outside.  That was much better than being in a tent.  The only downside of that was I got bit by mosquitoes and flies all over my legs.  But that was the least of my worries at the time.  Let’s see, I had charcoal, orange juice, garlic w/honey (soooo strong), goldenseal, and even had a clay therapy done to cool me down a bit.  Other people used the leftover clay to put on their faces.  Haha!  I took another shower, this time a hot and cold shower.  I ate like a bird today.. a couple morsels of food and that was more than enough.  Mrs. Kim told me that people usually get sick for 3-4 days.  I felt better Monday then terrible Tuesday.  The water here has a filter, but it hadn’t been changed in months.  The water is slightly yellow and that is all there is here.  We get the water about 3km away from a mountain stream.  I had to drink lots of water and that was the only water we have.  L  I need to add that Greg stayed with me the ENTIRE ordeal… 3 days.  He’s the BEST nurse I’ve ever had!  What a privilege it is to know such a friend. 

Others are starting to get sick as well.  Mrs. Chambers and Mrs. Durante are not feeling well… might be coming down with the flu.  I need to finish my secondary application for loma linda too!  Wednesday, we go to La Guardia to meet with our bible study contacts.  I was not planning on going because I had some loose stool.  But I felt much better by the time we left.  I have this annoying cough though..  I went to bible studies with Greg and Alana.  I was having some back issues as well.  So, I got to find a harder mattress to sleep on.  Problem solved. 

In La Guardia, there is a place called casa de cultura.  They have free wifi and it is fairly fast.  The fastest internet I’ve used since coming to Bolivia.  Last time, I took my iphone and Greg took his macbook.  I think we had too much fun.  I tried to facetime people and actually got a hold of a few.  Way too cool.  Alana bought some plantain chips.. I thought they were fantastic!  Fried and lightly salted in heat sealed plastic bags.  Coming back “home”, our car had problems again.. this time with a trailer full of sawdust and we were stuck in mud.  I don’t know how we pushed that car, considering that there were only 5 guys and 2 or 3 girls.  Anyways, we pushed it fast enough until the car started up again.   The car headlights weren’t working too.  We found out later that it was due to a faulty alternator.  Anyways, we used a headlamp to light the way home.  Literally.  Only in Bolivia.  XD

When we have good food, it reminds Greg and I about food back in the US.  For one of the lunches, we had tortilla w/stuffings, chips, and salsa.  I immediately thought of chipotle.  Gah!  Oh how much I miss good ol’ unhealthy American food!  China rose, El matador, Cheesecake factory, etc… and of course, home cooking.  Greg and I were about to hurt each other whenever one of us mentioned a particular food or restaurant.  XD 

Working outside in the sun here is very demanding.  Not just the intensity of the sun but there is humidity which contributes to very “heavy” air.  We mowed the lawn… when I’m talking about mowing the lawn, the grass is more than 3 feet high.  Obviously, the lawn mower kept jamming.  We had to be careful for tarantulas, snakes, and spiders.  Thankfully, we didn’t run into any.  Then, we had to rake the grass into piles for the garden.   The school is putting up a roof for a long patio outside the kitchen and classroom.  Come to find that the roof is made of asbestos.  -_____________-;;;  Seriously?  But then, this IS Bolivia.  I’ll just find out that I have cancer in the future or something.  The hard wood here is ridiculously hard.  Haha~  So the saws burn the wood while cutting because it is so hard.  The cut ends are black burnt.  You don’t see that happening in America.  Haha 

Mosquitoes, mosquitoes and more mosquitoes.  I started to use my 100% DEET directly on the mosquitoes themselves.  In the bathrooms, it’s almost suicide to do your business without first killing the mosquitoes.  The walls are covered by them… hundreds of them in each stall.  They’re inside, behind and under the toilet, on the shower head, along the curtain, grouped up on the ceiling, in the trash bin, on the flusher… you should get the picture.  Anyways, it’s pretty fun to kill them.  The DEET kills them instantly!  Well, I figured that if I use the 100% DEET on my body, it’ll probably give me some nasty skin disease or cancer.  Haha  I need to dilute it up a bit.  I am using a mosquito net in the room where I am staying with 3 others, including Greg.  One is from Oregon (Justin) and the other from Panama (Edwin).  The roof is very high and we do not have beds yet (bed frames).  So, there is no place to hang my mosquito net.  Wherever the net touches my skin, the mosquitoes can bite me.  I have blood stains on my bed sheet from the bites.   Trust me, they are not from chiggers or bed bugs. 

One thing I learned from going to places to give bible studies is that breast-feeding infants is not considered or acted upon in privacy.  Baby cries, okay.  They don’t cover up like in the states… actually, I think there’s a law in certain states that says you cannot breast feed in public?  Anyhow, it’s just different here. 

I went on a hike/adventure to get mangoes and mandarins.  We hiked up a small hill to the top.  The view was amazing!  Edwin wanted to get something from the Eucalyptus trees; I sat and ate the mangoes and mandarins while enjoying the view.  Feisty ants bit Edwin… he couldn’t get to the trees.  His skin swelled up.  Oh, and when you hike in a jungle, always take a stick with you to get all the spider webs in front of you.  

Dec 9-16