Saturday, March 15, 2008

From Soup to Sand

Friday, March 7: 11:57 pm - a bug in Brian's stomach is hard at work.
Saturday, March 8: 4:02 am - Brian is in the bathroom. Sick.

Brian spends the next day in bed or in the bathroom. While he's doing his best to recover quickly, Kim and Danilo (our cook's son) run all over Trujillo buying Electrolight, hydration salts, and bottles of water. By the next day, Brian is out of bed and doing better. Health advice came flooding: drink lots of liquids, no fruit, definitely no ceviche, and you must eat soup. Sopa. "Soup with chicken, nothing else" is what everyone kept saying. Poor Brian stuck to his strict diet and followed the rules, eating soup for the next two days. On Sunday night, however, Brian and Kim were able to make it to the Beach, Huanchaco, to catch the sunset (see Ocaso post below).

Monday, March 10: 8:36 am - We start teaching classes in the barrios. Brian continues to eat soup. Brian and Kim are offered the director position for the Bruce Peru Cuzco site. A bug in Kim's stomach is hard at work.

Tuesday, March 12: 1:03 am - Kim is sick.

As Kim stumbled back and forth between her bedroom and the bathroom, with a dizzying fever and an active stomach, Brian took on the role of two people. He took on the role of sandwich maker (for the kids we teach); school teacher; professional liason between Bruce, our director and Kim; errand runner; nurse; english teacher; and planner.

By Wednesday Kim is a bit more vocal, but still not very mobile, and Brian continues to work through the kinks of whether or not we should make the move to Cuzco. It's an amazing opportunity in a beautiful place, but were not sure we wanted to leave the good community we've found here (the conclusion to this is still in the works). Kim eats soup.

By Thursday, Kim begins a new diet of fried chicken and rice and takes on a bit more of the load in the organization again, teaching an English class at night. Three more volunteers arrive to the center, which is a huge help. All are British and seem to be working their way right in.

Friday, Kim is eating like a champ. After a fun morning teaching the kids, Brian, Kim, and new friends Simone and Megan all head to Huanchaco. The ocean breezes and the calm atmosphere are the perfect way to close such a week. And we had enough energy to take our second surfing lesson on Saturday morning.

As for the bug, which started it all - well, he maybe came to us from Huanchaco (this very beach we went back to). Hopefully, all the soup taught him a lesson.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

cipro, yogurt, and florastor it's an amazing combo, killing the bad stuf, and keeping you healthy. in bolivia you could buy in all in one place too. a weeks supply of good stomach cure for <$10, probably a bit more in Peru.

Lizzie said...

Ya - if you would have followed my advice and taken preventative Cipro, this wouldn't have been an issue :). Glad you're both feeling better. Did Mom tell you the news?

Anonymous said...

Yes... Lizzie: You also told me to wash my face with bottled water. Sometimes, I guess I just have to live on the edge ;) Someone told me today that if you have a stomach sickness, you should just drink Coke and the acid will kill everything in your stomach. Very interesting.

- Kim