A Little Sick (August 10th)

Well I told you all about my ear, right? I got water in it while swimming at the pool in Granada and it never came unclogged. The PC medical office prescribed some ear drops which I picked up in the next town at a pharmacy. The med office called me on Wednesday and asked me how it was going and it still hadn’t cleared up so they asked me if I wanted to come in to Managua. Well of course I decided to go because I had been trying to assimilate into a new culture with a plugged ear, making it difficult to hear/understand people, especially with them speaking in Spanish. Roger from PC came and picked me up and then we made the trip to Managua. Roger was very kind and chatted with me the way there and pointed out sights. It was a nice air conditioned ride, a luxury. We arrived to the PC office in Managua and it was a strange place…it was white and sterile, it had clean, private bathrooms with real flushing toilets. The office was air conditioned and I was sweating profusely and oddly felt comfortable. Was I not aware of the luxuries I was missing? It was strange, but nice to feel clean—I used real soap to wash my hands in a sink :)


After I settled in to this nice place, I had an appointment with one of the doctors and she took a look into my ears. She thought there might be bacteria in my ear so she prescribed a new medicine. Also, I told her that the day before I was feeling dehydrated, overheated, and weak. So, she decided to do some tests to see if I might have bacteria in my stomach…nice.

Well I’m currently taking drops in my ear for bacteria 3 times a day and in order to do so I have to lie on my side for about 10 minutes to let the medicine set and then insert a cotton ball…I look good ;) Also, I’m now taking pills for stomach bacteria as I received positive results today, and we all know in medicine that “positive” really means negative or not good :/

I had to wait until today to find out the results from yesterday’s tests, but fortunately I was going to Managua with the whole Nica 54 group for meetings. It was quite an adventure getting there though.

The two other trainees from my town and I were supposed to meet our language facilitator at the bus stop near the next town at 5:30am. Yes, you read that right, 5:30am!! We walked up the “highway” and there were several bus stops so we asked a man where the “empalme” was (where we were meeting our teacher) and he said “aqui” (here). So we stood and waited with several other people for about 10 minutes or so and didn’t see our teacher. We then decided to walk up the way a little and then found out we had been waiting in the wrong place and missed our “microbus” (smaller buses that are a little more secure and travel faster). The microbuses to Managua come through every half hour, so we waited a little and then decided to take the regular bus, which was already pretty full. We squeezed our way on where there was standing room only. These buses continue to pick up patrons until they are “full”, which I don’t think they know the definition of “full”. As we traveled, we continued to pick up people and the man collecting the fares yelled at everyone to keep moving back and to make two lines in the center aisle. Are you kidding me?!?! There were 3 people to a seat, two lines down the middle, and then the fare collector snaking through the sea of people to collect money. It was ridiculous. And when we finally thought we couldn’t possibly take on any more people, three or four squeezed on in. Then, even more came later. I thought they were going to start telling us to sit on top of the seat backs or lay across each other. I started feeling pretty queasy because I was standing for about an hour on an extremely crowded, uncomfortable, stuffy bus. Fortunately, one of the men opened another window so we got some fresh air :)

Finally, we made it to Managua, but our trip was not over. We walked around the bus terminal/market at Huembes and then caught a taxi to La Uca to meet up with the other trainees. It was so great to see our friends again! It had been a long week! We traveled to our destination in PC jeeps which are pretty cool and I trust the PC drivers much more than the bus drivers here. We had meetings all day, got rabies vaccinations, had snacks and lunch, and then I started feeling sick again :( I called the medical office and the doctor told me the results of my test and told me to get some medicine in Managua to start asap. Also, she told me to avoid dairy products and fried/spicy foods…well what I am going to eat in Nicaragua then?!? Hahaha Plain foods, which are good for me anyway because it will be better on my stomach, bacteria or not.

The bus ride home was less eventful and I was glad for that. Our PC driver solicited a bus which promised us 21 TEFL volunteers all seats so we wouldn’t have to stand on our long ride home. This was much better! I took my pill and we headed home. I had to tell my host mom all the foods I can’t eat, but the doctor suggested foods such as: vegetables, plain rice, bread, juice, and chicken without spices. I was actually looking forward to eating some plain food because lately I’ve had large portions of interesting flavors, not bad, just a lot. P.S. the cheese here is not good :( My host mom made me mashed potatoes (pure de papas), squash, and juice (de guayaba). It was a smaller meal which was perfect because I ate a lot today already and I feel bad wasting food. I’m not quite sure why, but my host mom always gives me such large portions and I always tell her it’s a little too much. I don’t want to offend her and she says it’s ok if I can’t eat it all. I hope she’ll make smaller meals from now on because they don’t really do “leftovers” here, which is unfortunate.

After this crazy day, I was glad to be home with my host family and finally relax after all the running around. The kids were pretty wild, but it becomes white noise to me. I’m really enjoying getting to know my host family more and we’ve been talking a lot more about all kinds of things. My host brother is probably my favorite because he cracks me up and is always asking me questions if I’ve heard of something or if I’ve tried gallo pinto (the favorite dish of Nicas), etc. But don’t worry, my friends, this man is married, so nothing will happen here hahaha I saw some of you seeing some potential, but nada At our orientation in Granada we completed a form for our “time capsule” and on there it asked “how likely are you to date (casually) a Nica, date (seriously), or marry a Nica”, to which I marked “no way” to all of the above. Sorry to disappoint you friends. But then again, you never know ;)

Anyway, I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow…maybe 8am? That’s pretty good for me! I’ve always been a night person, but with my schedule here, I get sleepy around 8:30-9pm…yikes! I’m becoming an old person! Haha Until we meet again…