So yesterday was quite the medical adventure.... a couple of the girls here had the flu this week, and I started getting it yesterday... not very fun. So luckily Lindsey was allowed to stay behind with me and we decided to go to the medical clinic down the street, which our host lady said was safe and reliable.....
And apparently not very clean or hygenic. There was vomit ALL over the entryway and waiting room, which was also suuuper overcrowded with cranky Peruvians who were all arguing over who was next in line, and finally after 25 minutes they cleaned up the vomit. I ended up with an injection (which a nurse gave me in the bathroom since it was so crowded so she took me to the tiny, dirty little bathroom and gave me the injection, weird and kindof unhygenic, but okay) and almost passed out, I got all lightheaded and dizzy and had to sit on the curb outside. It was pretty funny cause Lindsey thought I was going to pass out, and I was so loopy I didnt know what was going on. Good times in Peru!
I was also pretty sure everyone in the clinic waiting room was thinking, ¨oh great, this stupid gringa is going to give me the swine flu¨, since it´s all over the news here that it originated in the US (which isn´t even true, right?) and the first case of the swine flu here in Peru was brought here by a Peruvian who was in NYC last week and only discovered she had it after she disembarked her plane ride and put 150 other passengers at risk. So now all the stores here (like big supermarkets where lots of American tourists shop) have all the employees wear SARS masks, which kind of makes me laugh, except when they all look at me every time I cough like ¨go home gringa, we dont want your swine flu¨, while I am thinking ¨first of all I havent been in the states for the last 6 months, and second of all it would be your medical system here that would contaminate you, NOT me¨... Man, Peru seriously needs some good doctors and medical practices... any medical missionaries up for improving the medical system here?? Come on over!
But it was definitely a good move to get the injections because when we cross the border to Chile on Monday (ahhh! Monday!!), there´s no way they would let an American with any kind of flu cross the border. So now I am getting much better and I have to go back for one more injection in about an hour, so let´s just hope theres no vomit on the floor and everything will be fine.
The good news is we got to stay in the YWAM base/house by ourselves all day and watch American chick flicks in Spanish without subtitles, so we worked on our Spanish while falling in love with Julia Roberts all over again. It´s hilarious to watch American movies with weird, fake, really corny voices dubbed over in Spanish (including a horribly, horribly corny laugh, which is espcially lame since her laugh is the thing that makes Julia Roberts Julia Roberts). It´s just not the same.... but we did improve our Spanish and learn lots of new phrases!
Ohhhh my gosh and the funniest thing happened to Lindz and I when we went to buy bread in the morning! This older guy, probably about 55 or 60 years old, who we´ve never seen before in either of our lives, ran up to Lindsey, kissed her on the cheek and literally yelled ¨How are you! I´ve missed you! Where have you been??¨and started asking us a million questions and was absolutely convinced he knew her. When he asked us what food we liked here, and if we liked a certain dish, we told him we hadn´t tried it, and he launched into a full-on recipe discourse he had memorized for this octopus soup dish (still yelling, mind you), and of course Lindsey is trying to listen politely, while I am cracking up and had to walk away because I was about to cry I was laughing so hard... so finally he says he has to go, after like half an hour, and asks her for her name again and thinks she says Nancy, so he´s going on and on saying ¨Now Nancy if you just call me, we can go dancing sometime and maybe make some dinner, here´s my number, Nancy; just call me later Nancy¨ and I am dyyyying laughing and no help whatsoever to poor Lindsey, who is trying to tell him her name isn´t Nancy, she doesn´t know him, she will not be calling him, and she doesn´t want him to make her octopus soup... ohhhh man I am still laughing about it.
Ok injection time, much love and besos (kisses) from Peru.... I´ll be home before ya know it.....
Keep us in your prayers for safe travels, for a good time reuniting with everyone at the base, and for soaking up every last opportunity here and learning every lesson God has for us
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