Sick

So I have been sick for about a week now. I completely lost my voice at one point; that got better, but I still can’t shake this nasty cough. I feel really tired and just plain icky. And, of course, I’ve been running around as if I didn’t have anything. I finally dragged myself to the clinic for a consult with the visiting doctor. She listened to my breathing, and my lungs sounded clean. That means no antibiotics. That’s really fine with me because I’m pretty sure amoxicillin doesn’t work on me anymore anyway. She said it was a bronchitis without the infection?? She gave me a prescription for a cough suppressant that Marie is going to pick up for me when she goes to the city tomorrow. I also got Atrovent on the nebulizer 3 times at 20 minutes a pop. All in all, I was there several hours. Volunteers are generally seen first, but I had to wait. It was okay because I would have felt bad about cutting in front of the baby. Another thing it could be is the return of my asthma. I will be so annoyed if it has lain dormant for the past 10 years only to rear its ugly head during my year abroad.

So how better to treat an illness than to spend a day working outside? We have a few cases of dengue here at the Ranch. Once volunteer has it for sure (the hemorrhagic variety, at that) and one has a suspected case. So today was our War Against Dengue cleaning day. Seriously, they cancelled school for it. I don’t understand how chopping down grass and dragging branches into a pile is going to help. Seems to me we should be getting rid of some of those pools of standing water, but what do I know? Fortunately, I was assigned to work with the littlest kids, so none of the work was too hard. Even then, I didn’t help out that much. What with being sick and hating physical labor and all. It’s frustrating to me not to be able to show my talents. I physically can’t do the hard labor, but I know I have gifts to share. But here, I feel like they’re kind of useless. I’m hopeful that will change, but at this moment in time I am sick and feeling sorry for myself. And I kind of feel like me getting dengue is a forgone conclusion because I am covered in bug bites despite valiant efforts at putting on repellant.

One good thing was spending time with Gabi, the cutest little girl ever! She has an underbite and a speech impediment, and I love her. Her giggle is absolutely infectious. I buddied up with her to move planks of wood because we’re about the same strength level (she’s sick, so yeah). At one point, she lifted up my shirt and saw my tattoo. Tattoos are strictly verboten here on the Ranch because in Honduras it means you have a gang affiliation. (I am in a hippo gang, apparently.) Anyway, when she saw it, she said, “Un dibujo! Un chancho!” Roughly translated, that’s, “A picture! A pig!” As far as she’s concerned, that’s exactly what it is.