so last thursday while by beautiful ladies were still here i came down with a case of the yuck eye..it isn't painful but just a little annoying and extremely contagious which means no touching babies (i suspect laura lynn and taniuska to be somehow responsible since they then had full access to MY baby ti zwazo) and is therefore a travesty to the human condition...or at least my human condition...but the next morning cold like symptoms had set in and so i prepared to crash out once i reluctantly took my peeps to the airport and get some rest so that i would be back in full swing for the next week...between all the groups in, mine and kerv's trips out etc. the past few weeks had been a little topsy turvy and the week would be my chance to realy focus on the house, on the kids, on kervens, on dorothy...try to help get things back in to normal swing and be as helpful as possible before my trip to the states on the 18th...5 days of fever, two trips to medlab, countless hours laid out on our tile floor, too many ibproben, not near enough ice chips and water, 6 days without touching a baby, a few hallucinations and one minor meltdown later and i am finally well enough to write and say that the super productive week i planned is not exactly what went down....
...but instead of telling you all the things i didn't get to that i "needed to" or walking you through all the lovely details of my super strange illness (don't worry aunt sabra i will tell you every detail later) i thought i would tell you what happens to you at faith hope love infant rescue when you are sicker than you have ever been in your whole life...
your beautiful roomates bring you water and vitamins and ibrophen and put them in arms reach of wherever you happen to have been able to fall asleep...even if it is right in the middle of the floor and totally in their way...and even if it is their vacation
those same lovely roomates turn your entire room into a quite zone 24 hours a day...even when you are awake...
you come from a bath to find that the "big kids" have come in and made you pancakes out of their toys to help make you well...
even though it is the worst possible time for you to have gotten sick and there is so much to do that you can't help with you get to see how God works it all together for his glory and how others jump in to help and make it all work...even if you have to hear about it afterwards b/c you are too delirous to know what is going on :)
you hear children randomly call your name throughout the day let you know that they are praying for you...
medications...malaria tests...nurses to adminster them...all happen to be right there in the house which is handy...
the nannies...every time you stumble your way into the kitchen looking for some kind of relief...meds...ice...you usually run into at least 2 or 3 beautiful haitian woman who will inquire about your health in creole and at least pretend to understand what you say...they will pray for you freely right then and there...and when you have been sick for a while and you are looking pretty rough...especially in the hair area...they will look away and pretend not to notice...:)
even though your illness has made life totally boring...the beautiful boy you are supposed to be teaching won't complain...he will come and sit quietly on your bed until you fall asleep and will read to you since it hurts to hold your eyes or the book open...he even does all the voices
did i mention amazing roomates....more water...more meds...more getting of the things it seems are just so far away...the insisting that you eat and silly stuff like that...even more the offer to cook for you the stuff they are insisting you eat. the funny stories from school and boat and relationships to distract you from the huge temper tantrum your body is throwing.
even though it means she is having to do clinic and meds and deal with new babies and the trips to the base to try to get kids onto the surgery boat and a million other things without any help from you...dorothy still manages in to come in after all that as ask how YOU are doing...wow.
when it is finally too much and things just aren't getting better the beautiful dorothy and roomates will pack you into the car and haul you in to give your blood and pee and throat yuck to see what in the world is wrong with you...which means driving at night in haiti...and they will do it again the very next night if need be...and if they find out you don't have dengue fever...they will let you hold a baby on the way home.
when you finally emerge into the land of the living again children will flock to you like you have been gone a year but they will be easy on you too like somehow they know you aren't ready...they will ask to dance because they know you need to hear they want to but they won't beg because they know you really can't do it...not today...maybe tomorrow...
and ti zwazo will clap her hands and laugh. oh man.
there has been something really educational about being really sick right in the midst of this life...there is no where in this house you can go that life isn't happening...that you can't hear the laughs and cries of children, the scolds of nannies, the banging of pot and the washing of bottoms...but even when sounds and lights seem to hurt having to lay very still while it all happens around makes you understand it in a whole new way. and i hope i will value every day that i don't have a headache the way i valued the first hour i didn't have one after those days of having one...and even though i have always had probably more sympathy for a sick child than i actually needed i think listening to them while also being one has given me a different insight as to what it is to live that that...and i think i am a much better person for it....just the reminder that this very intricate, very busy, very difficult life could very well continue on with out me and it is not a necessity that i be involved here at all but something i am blessed enough to get to participate in was really good for me...there was so much...i wish i hadn't been so darn sick so i could have written all my revelations down :)...i received some of the most plain and precious and pure offerings of love from some of the deepest and most honest places in the hearts of the people here...that sounds very dramatic and over the top but it is very true and so you should know...and just so you know i don't have any dreaded fever or malaria and i am in fact going to live..so yay. i even have several pages of information about what is going on in my blood and my urine and the back of my throat ...is written in french and means virtually nothing to me but hey, im in haiti.
i love you all and if you are in southeast ga...i might see you next week...whoo hoo.
