Sunday, October 7, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 3

Sunday, October 7, 2007 Camping in Las Campanas Day 3

Sunday morning was really relaxing. We ate breakfast and then a small group of us went on another little hike and Tomás brought his guitar again. We sat in a clearing on the hill singing the choruses and what little of the verses we could remember of all the greatest classics. At some point on the hill, I noticed that my right ear itched a little and I was getting a little red bump on the right side right under my mouth. It itched but I figured I’d just eaten something and had a little allergic reaction or something.

While we all sat around singing, my friend Tom Harker, (the friend that came and ate dinner at with Olga and I way back in August) went on an epic hike up the hill next to us. We didn’t think he’d be able to make it to the top, but after almost an hour he conquered it! We waited for him to climb down because we didn’t want to leave him alone and we all went to lunch together.
After lunch everyone packed up and got ready to leave. Around 2ish we all piled on to the bus, smelly, filthy and ready to take showers. By the time we got on the bus, the little red bump had grown and around my entire mouth itched. I asked a few of my girlfriends and they gave me the typical: don’t worry about it, you can barely notice it, I’m sure it will go away really soon. So I ignored it.

We got back into Santiago around 5, just enough time to get home, take a quick shower and get to mass at 7. I went to church with Natalie, my only friend that lives downtown with me. After mass Natalie and I were walking back and I was getting a little stressed because I realized how much work I had to do. I still had to write a paper for my Bible class and another for my Poverty class and I hadn’t studied at all for my Education test on Wednesday. On top of it all, my face was now almost entirely red with the beginning of a rash and itched pretty bad. My eyes were even starting to get a little swollen. Natalie was surprised to see how bad it had gotten since the afternoon but told me not to worry.

When I got home I asked Olga about my face and she immediately had some remedies that she swore would help “Al tiro!” (Right Away!!). I told her I think I was having an allergic reaction to something I ate (although that has never happened to me before) and she was convinced that it was because I’d eaten Peanut Butter. I tried to tell her that I’ve eaten peanut butter all my life, but she said that it is too strong for me and that I’m just not accostumed to it! But she made a herbal water and I used cotton to put it all over my face and it did help the itching. After trying to finish my paper, I was able to go to sleep, convinced that I’d wake up in the morning perfectly fine. I just needed the food allergy to get out of my system.