I am unwell.
It was expected. But it's still pretty awful.
Nothing to be worried about – just the normal 'you're living in a new
climate, eating new foods, being beseiged by many stressful things at
the same time' kind of belly trouble.
It meant I passed up a trip to Kpalime yesterday, though, which is
disappointing because I was really looking forward to getting to an
internet cafe where I would be able to actually post the past few days
of blogging, send off some emails, and otherwise be in contact with the
world.
It also means that my host family is feeling really really guilty. It's
hard enough that at each meal they continually tell me to 'mange'
'mange beaucoup' and 'prend' (eat, eat a lot and take). Now I have to
tell them that I can't eat at all. They look so disappointed that I try
to eat a little bit at each meal, but then I get sick again. bah. So
I've been hanging out in my room a lot today. I want to go sit outside,
but I'm not for several reasons: 1) I don't want to show off my
computer – I only use it when I'm sure that no one can see it. I just
don't want to be ostentatious. 2) I want to be somewhat 'productive' so
I don't feel like such a slug and it's hard to do French exercises
while my adorable host children are crawling all over and singing to
me. 3) At lunch, I told my host sister that I really need to do laundry
and she insisted that I was not to do any laundry because I am ill. She
told me to get my laundry and she would do it. I could only protest a
bit because I really wasn't feeling up to doing laundry but I
desperately need clean clothes. So I don't want to go outside and
lounge in the shade while she labors over my trousers, ya know?
Perhaps after this post I'll go outside and do some reading in the
shade. It's frustrating how little breeze I get in my room. I kind of
want to buy a wall thermometer so I can figure out just how hot it is,
but maybe that's not a fantastic idea. Might just be overwhelming.
Truly, the heat has been okay. I am constantly hot, the other day the
amount of sweat pouring down my legs made me wonder if I'd lost control
of my bladder, but I have not yet felt like I needed to peel my skin
off just to get cool. So that's good right? There have certainly been
times in California where I felt like that.
Also, I have not been bitten very much by the mosquitos. I seem to have
a bunch of flea bites – my family has two cats, they called both of
them 'le chat' until I named them 'Nuage' and 'Etoile' last night – but
I've avoided the mozis. And the flea bites are nothing like when I went
to Thailand. Gosh, what a nightmare that was!
A couple of days before going to Thailand, I suddenly found a bunch of
bites all over my arm. They were insanely itchy and made me really
paranoid, jumping at every possibly itchy spot on my body. I went to
see the doctor the day before the flight and she could not identify
them either, but she gave me a prescription for a cream that's intended
to fight little insects that people sometimes find in the
below-the-belt region because she couldn't think of anything else to
give me.
When I arrived in Thailand, the bites tripled in size and itchiness.
They were gross. So we went over to the local private hospital where
our hostess worked and a doctor there saw me and immediately identified
them as simple run-of-the-mill flea bites. I'd had an allergic reaction
to them which was intensified by the heat and the humidity, but that's
all. He gave me some hydrocortisone cream and some anti-allergy meds
and they were gone within a few days.
Luckily for me, the Peace Corps gave me a fantastic meds kits that
includes both of those items so I've been able to treat the flea bites
quickly and easily. They're gone within a day or two now. Awesome.
Okay, so this entry was brought to you by yucky belly and fleas. It
only gets better from here. :)
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