being sick = no fun

ah, getting parasites. isn't that what every person hopes for on trips? i know i sure did. and boy did i luck out. and it even happened at the beginning of my trip. what more could a girl ask for?

our third night there we ate at miriam's house. miriam is a woman in patzicia that we paid to cook for us. ashlee had eaten her food the entire six months she lived in guatemala. this was our second meal with her and we were served hamburgers and french fries. a guatemalan trying to make an american meal is not a good idea. i remember looking in her kitchen and knowing this could not be good. towards the end of my meal i saw a small bug cooked into my fries and knew it was too late.

i got sick that night.

now, being sick in a foreign country naturally presents some difficulties. i thought that i could wait it out and i'd be fine, but there's only so much time and immodium can do. tuesday morning we decided to go to a local clinic. the health care was free and so there were lines of guatemalans to be helped. yet somehow we went straight to the front of the line. how does that work? granted i was really ill and grateful for the treatment, but still left feeling like something was not right with what just happened.

the doctor gave me four pills that i have NO clue what they were. but drank them i did. by the evening i was feeling better. i had one day of feeling fine and then thursday it reared it's ugly head again. (probably didn't help that the day before i had only eaten mcdonald's as it was the only restaurant i could trust). thursday i took yet another dose of who-knows-what and it still didn't help.

add on that hurricane deane was in the area and brought this nasty, cold rain. we were prepared for sunshine and inadequately dressed. aptly so, ashlee and i both got bad colds at the same time.

when i came back to the states i went to the doctor and found out i had an ear infection and nasty cold, but that my stomach seemed to be fine.

here is me. being sick. and cold. and sitting next to my bed.



in the car taking my pills (ash thought it was so funny and decided to document it). please notice
my hair. i was scared of our shower and put off taking one as long as possible. this is what i call my greasy look.



ah, dear samuel. the day before we left, samuel traveled two hours to patzicia to deliver a dear, dear card for us. apparently his bus broke down on his way back. that's dedication.


our bathroom. where i spent way too much time for my liking.


this is what we call "sick food." we only had tiendas, which are tiny, tiny stores with limited selections to buy our food. so i basically had soup and bananas. please notice the bleach we used to wash all the food we ate.