Thursday, September 20, 2007 Not the 7th day, but still a day of rest

Thursday, September 20, 2007 Not the 7th day, but still a day of rest

Since today was my one day between Fiestas Patrias and more traveling, I needed to take advantage of it and get some work done. I spent the morning doing an assignment for my education class. During almuerzo the mailman came by and dropped of a package my mom sent me! It was full of good old American treats: Pop Tarts, animal crackers, Care Bare fruit snacks, a slinky, and letters from home. I was thrilled to get it and had a great time explaining everything to Olga. She had never seen Pop Tarts or animal crackers or a slinky (which apparently they don’t have in Chile).

Afterwards I went to a chapel nearby to pray and came back feeling refreshed. I frantically worked on a 4 page essay that was due the following Monday until 6, when I had once with Olga. She wanted to make sure I was well fed before my trip and insisted that we ate.

We went to mass together at 7 and towards the end of mass I started feeling a little ill. When we got back to the apartment I told Olga that my stomach hurt and within the next 20 minutes or so I felt horrible. Olga of course had tons of remedies that she was sure would help immediately and for the next few hours I laid curled up in bed while she brought me various tea concoctions. I forced them down, but wasn’t feeling any better. I knew that if I got sick I would feel better, but I couldn’t. Olga kept telling me to try and burp or fart and we laughed together whenever I joyfully updated her on my “gas releasing” process. We tried to figure out why I had suddenly gotten so sick and I knew it was something I’d ate or drank. Since that day I’d only eaten with Olga, I figured it was the meat or something. But Olga swore it was because I’d drunk water while I ate my empanada at once. She said that no one ever drinks water when they eat empanadas and she had thought about warning me against it but didn’t say anything. I just smiled and agreed, but I knew it couldn’t be the combination of food and water.

(Post Script: I’m not quite sure what made me so sick, but I think that it was the water. The water from the tap is some of the best in Latin America, but sometimes, like anywhere, it can have impurities. I drank some of the same water later on, which I had brought with me to La Serena in my water bottle and I felt a little sick again. But don’t worry, I’ve been drinking the tap water again and I’ve felt completely fine. I think it was just a freak accident. But the good news from it all: I now have absolutely no desire to ever eat an empanada ever again.)

Since I was getting on another bus at midnight for a 7 hour ride, I was quite anxious to get this issue taken care of. I was slowly getting better, but not quick enough when Olga remembered some root extract or something that she swore would help. The mysterious dark liquid tasted horrible and I still didn’t feel much better but around 10:45 I headed out to meet Sam and Calli at the bus station. While we waited for the bus, I paced the station and prayed I would be better when I got on the bus. At one point I almost did throw up, but unfortunately I wasn’t near a bathroom so I couldn’t. Anyway, I’ll move on. Sorry about the unnecessary details. This is more for my sake so that when I reread it in 20 years I remember my agony!!

So I wasn’t feeling so hot but poor Sam told us that a few hours early she had talked to her mother (her real mom) and found out that her great aunt had a terrible stroke and wasn’t doing very well. They told Sam that she didn’t have long to live and there was really nothing they could do. Her great aunt had been like a grandmother to her and they had been very close, so Sam took the news really hard. I could tell she was really upset and hated that we were starting our trip to La Serena this way. But at midnight we got on the bus and I fell asleep as soon as I could.