It happen, Estoy Muy Enfermo

I have been in Guatemala for more than three weeks and I had not yet been sick. That is the longest I have ever been in country without getting sick. But like the other baseball players in the dugout never discuss the no-hitter their pitcher has going between innings, I guess I should never have thought about my string of healthy days. Admittedly for the past couple of days or more, I seem to have some sort of an intestinal bug that was creating some discomfort, but I thought with my pro-biotics and vitamins, I would kick it. Friday after class, Abdiel Lopez picked me up and I was spending the weekend with him and his family. He does not live near Antigua nor the capital, and we ended up at a little dirt road smaller than the dirt roads in San Miguel Chicaj. Then we pulled up at walled house with a huge steel gait. After the gait was slid open on its tracks, I found myself at the nicest house I have had the privilege to visit in Guatemala. Abdiel and one of his daughters started jamming and doing some Christian songs. I also remembered my goal of being smarter than a fifth grader in Spanish, and tried to talk to a six year old in my Spanish, very unsuccessfully. That was a bit disappointing. Abdiel is the regional director for Faith Comes By Hearing and his region includes 11 Central and South American countries and is really nice house also has a very strong wifi signal, so I was able to Skype with the family. The six year old girl was the birthday girl for the night so there was a party. Her family went to Abdiel's church (Abdiel is also a pastor) and the little girl wanted to have her party with Abdiel's family. After the party, Abdiel's brother-in-law told stories for hours and although he was also acting the stories out, he spoke so fast I was not getting very much. But everyone was laughing so hard during almost three hours of stories, that they had tears in their eyes.

After the stories, I retired to bed. At about 2AM, I woke up and my stomach was rumbling and there was also intestinal signs of a southern breakout. This was a terrible familiar feeling about all of this. I was glad I was in the nicest house I had ever been in, because the porcelain throne and were about to become friends for a while. The Spanish name for toilet (actual toilet, not bathroom which we all know as baño) is inodoro and it is masculine. The name of my toilet became Raul, because that is what I called him all night. I would hold my head over him and say, "Raul, Raul" from the bottom of my gut. I was purging from both ends and when morning rolled around, I was very, very weak from dehydration.

The family became aware of my situation in the morning and they felt terrible. I let them know it had started days ago and not at their place. One of the bad things, though, was I had left my ciprofloxin back in Antigua for times like this. But I showed the family 'ciprofloxin' on google and they called around and got some delivered an hour later.

Today I am hanging around, mostly in bed. I have been able to keep yogurt down and I have not had to have a close conversation with Raul since this morning. I was supposed to go to church with them tonight for a couples dinner and Abdiel had asked to just talk for a couple of minutes, which could have easily meant I was the keynote speaker. I am not going to be able to join them, though. I am going to spend the rest of the day and evening just getting well so I can go to Abdiel's church with his family. Life in Guatemala.