Okay friends, maybe I only THOUGHT I liked traveling. Maybe
all that stuff from before is bologna. Maybe I’m in WAY over my head and have
been for the past 5 weeks!!!!
First off, I LOVE people, especially people who are
different from me. I’ll have to blog later about my Cuencana bestie, Lorie, and
her very handsome green-eyed brother, Oscar.
And I LOVE the Spanish language. It sounds so incredibly
beautiful to me. The next time you guys hear someone speaking in Spanish (not
street Spanish), listen closely to how the voices will go up and down, higher
and lower. Like a song. I’m working on singing my Spanish. Maybe it’ll happen
once I stop thinking so grammatically.
So I love people and I love Spanish, but as far as leaving
the U.S. to make it happen….haha let me just say I’m thinking twice about it!
And that’s a lot for me to say, because I wanted to go on this trip more than
anything. Seeing new sights is another upside to leaving your comfort zone.
BUT….…there’s definitely a downside.
Sometimes, as time goes on, you get braver and decide to do
things and go on trips just for the sake of living. That’s why when Lorie asked
me to go to La Troncal with her, I didn’t think twice.
It was….an experience. It was a small little market town,
the kind with motor taxi drivers (motorcycles pulling a cart), people yelling
things in the streets as they sell their items, and non-existent doors.
Everything is wide-open. I don’t think I have seen anything quite like
it….though Laredo, Mexico comes to mind now that I think back on it.
Anyway, upon my return from La Troncal, things started to go
a little….CRAZY.
I first noticed the bumps on my skin probably Wednesday. I
was changing my shirt and along my waistline I found about 15 small red bumps.
Now for those of you who know me, germs and the unknown world of sickness have
frightened me greatly for as long as I can remember. When my mom first asked me
about whether or not I was afraid to travel alone to Ecuador, I told her
“mmmmmm of robbers and traveling far away? No. But, of sickness, yes.”
Gah!! I NEVER have unknown bumps on my skin, so when they
miraculously appear, I know something is up. Then, I noticed them on my arm, then
I noticed about 9 more on my ankle, and 3 more on my other ankle, and to my
grand dismay, there were even a couple (two to be exact) on my pompis. Now for
those of you who know what pompis is, great….cause you’re either my family or
Sara or Sandra. For those of you who don’t know what pompis is, don’t worry
this is TMI already!!!!!!! AAAAhhHHHH by this point, I was freaking out!! I
laid my burden on Sonia who wanted to see EVERY single one so she could
diagnose me. This involved me running from her screaming as she grabbed at my
clothes trying to undress me. Her diagnosis: she didn’t know what they were and
decided that they might be pulgas. Oh no, I’m a dog. I have fleas in my bed. Pulgas
= Fleas
This was not good to hear in my already frazzled state of
mind, so I scanned my sheets, but Sonia told me I wouldn’t be able to see them.
She said I would have to wait to see if more bumps popped up on my skin.
Great, just great. I have to sleep with the fleas again.
Well…the mystery continued. “Is that another one on my
calf?!” I didn’t know. “Had that been there before, Self?” Still didn’t know. I
was stressed, so I took myself to the secretary and told her I needed to see
the school doctor. She had a humorous look on her face and asked if she could
see them. So of course, I showed her and she proceeded to take me to the school
director. They took me into the bathroom and closed the door (while everyone
else in the foyer was staring at me wondering what the heck was wrong with me).
Both Susana and Maria Cecilia laughed at me and told me that they were….drum
roll please…..MOSQUITO BITES. Stinkin’ lousy mosquito bites. Supposedly, this
always happens when new peeps head to the coast. They come back with the bites
of a certain type of mosquito that makes its home only in coastal areas. They
don’t itch much and take about a week and a half to disappear. Yep, my symptoms
exactly. And know what else? Come to find out Lorie had them too. Grrrrrrrr…
If only it stopped there….
Anyone know what an amoeba is? The parasitical (I may have
just made up the word parasitical) kind?
I don’t understand! My first four weeks here were great! But
the fifth week is the week of DOOM. Too bad someone didn’t warn me about the
“fifth week” before.
I was sick this past weekend and Sonia thinks I have an
amoeba. She said I must have eaten something (this supposedly happens a lot to
newcomers) which made me sick and left me with an amoeba. I don’t even know if
that is supposed to be plural or not! So if you guys are reading this, please
pray that I don’t have an amoeba. In order to be sure, I have to take a very
uncomfortable exam. So now, I must play the waiting game. And I’m also not very
good at being patient. OOOhhhhhhh how we take the peace of mind for granted!!
Do I like traveling? I think NOT! Well, at least in this
moment anyway. Moments change and along with them, feelings.
Next Friday. Si Dios Quiere….next Friday, I’ll return to the
good ol’ (or ole’) states of America.
I’m beaming…..
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