blue monday

The doctor advised that I stay in Santa Rosa in case my fever went up again. I spent the weekend at the PC house and left Monday morning. I wanted to get back to San Ramón early because I was waiting for a box to arrive from my parents and the company called me and told me that it was going to arrive Monday. After a semi-late start (there is no other kind in Honduras), I got in a jalón that was headed towards the road to San Ramón (my buses don’t leave Santa Rosa until 11 am). Keep in mind that I just came from a hospital stay and was carrying a lot of stuff with me. And since I had time in Santa Rosa, I baked my birthday cake early to bring it back and freeze it until the 10th. I got in another jalón on the road to San Ramón and start chatting with the woman who’s riding with me. She brought up how horrible the road up the mountain is and I said, “I know. Thank goodness it’s not raining.”

Less than 5 minutes later it began to pour.

I was still in this jalón, covering my head the best I could and trying to stand over the cake so it doesn’t get ruined. The rain lets up after a few minutes and a few minutes later, the driver parked his car at his house in Pinabetal (a town about 25 minutes by car from San Ramón). I grabbed my stuff and started walking. I checked in on the cake and it was all good. Another jalón came by, picked me up and dropped me off in Lajitas (20 min). I sat on this log bench waiting for another jalón and it started to rain hard again. I took all my stuff and put it under the bench and I got a text message. As I was writing a message back, I had failed to notice the dog that passed by. When I turned around, I see the dog’s head under the bench eating my cake! Since it was a lost cause by then I just watched this dog eat the whole thing thinking how hilarious life can be at times.

“Good stuff, huh?”, I say to the dog.

I waited and waited but no jalón ever came through and while the distance is walk able, it is not walk able in the rain. The bus came around 1230 and got on. I saw someone from my town and he asked where I had been the past several days. I told him that I was in the hospital and he said,

“Well that’s good.”

That was not a lost in translation moment. It was a simple question he asked and I just said that I was in the hospital. So I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and didn’t say anything else.

Finally, finally I got to San Ramón. And you know what? The box didn’t end up coming.

Hilarious!

hospital visit

After a great New Year's with my friend Connie, I started to have pain in my lower back but didn't give it much thought because I had been riding on a crowded chicken bus. When I got back to San Ramón, I started to get these freaky chills that would last for 15 minutes. It's scary shivering for that long and not being able to stop. After the chills, my fever shot up to 104, so the next morning I went to the hospital in Santa Rosa to get checked out. It turned out that I had a serious kidney infection and they wanted to check me in to watch my fevers.

It wasn't that bad being in the hospital because the staff was so nice to me. The stupid thing was telling my mom that I was sick in the first place. She's a worrier (what mom isn't) and kept calling me and asking me what medication I was on and how could I have gotten a kidney infection (I don't know! geez!)

The funny thing was when I had a fever or a headache they would give me an injection instead of a pill (they're big on injections here). And they would give it through the needle in my hand (which, by the way, took them 4 tries to get...you have such weak veins!, they'd say) and it felt gross because the medicine would be all cold and in my hand. Yuck.

I stayed for two nights and still feel like all my energy has been sucked out of me. But the one benefit to being sick (the only benefit) was that I lost a few pounds mainly because I couldn't keep eating refried beans for every meal. How is a person supposed to get better eating fried food?!