Spring Rain

I'm not really sure I should say spring (when it's 107 out, that's not the image that comes to mind). But it is still early April, so... Anyway, I'd had a rough night on Tuesday, severe diarrhea woke me up around midnight and by 2 am I was vomiting. The diarrhea actually began a week ago, but usually doesn't wake me up. I've done nothing outrageously crazy like eating food from a street vendor or anything else for that matter. Pretty much only home-cooked meals and water that's gone through the purifier. I counted my blessings as I've been here nearly 4 months and not had anything serious. But after a week, and the new situation, I was feeling more like it was serious.

My friend brought me some antibiotics (we've got an American doctor we are acquainted with working in our state so I called him and explained the situation) and electrolyte powder. I also needed to keep hydrated and eat something. Ugh! I'm not the first to deal with this (and it's certainly not the first time I've had to deal with it myself). With a pounding head and twisted belling there's not much to do but lay around - of course, then your muscles and back start yelling at you because they were never intended to relax so much either. With no TV or videos, and remember - throbbing head, so reading is out, I was happy to notice the skies darkening and the wind picking up. In fact, the temps dropped drastically into the 70's. I took a chair out on the balcony and watched the oopla ladies laughing and hurriedly picking up their little patties of poop, while the water buffalo lounged either in the river or along the banks. No washing was being done in the river today - they knew a storm was coming. It felt good to be out there, feeling the wind on my face, sorta slouching back in my chair, resting my head against the wall. The lightening and thunder were exciting. When I was a lifeguard I learned how to tell how far away the lightening was - by my scientific (ha!) calculations about 2 miles away. I was worried about those in the river, but praying that no one would be zapped on my watch.

I went to bed early that night, thinking there might be more storms ahead as the sky hadn't cleared. I woke with a call to the toilet and looked out my door - which I kept open because of the wonderful breeze (my house was actually cooled down to 68!). There was another fierce lightening storm happening. I was too tired to stay and watch it, but I did notice water coming into my house. Gotta love marble floors - they can handle these things. So, I shut the door and returned to bed. In the morning (still feeling yucky) I ventured out to notice three puddles in my house. Two in the room with the door that leads to the balcony (no surprise there), but one was around the corner and closer to my kitchen! I can't even begin to guess how that puddle came to be (no leak on the roof - it's concrete and brand new, besides, there's no indication by the paint that anything happened. I guess the wind just brought it in.

So, today was a cooler day and I wasn't about to play sick any longer. I had the kids over and played our favorite games (Go Fish with the alphabet cards I brought and Slap Jack - both of which I introduced a few weeks ago and no day goes by that we don't play). By the end, my head was beginning to pound, my stomach feeling odd. Needless to say, it's been a rough day, but I did get to finish it off with the first night of Season 14's Amazing Race. I laughed so hard with the cheese contest and then cried when the first team arrived. That's a keeper and I will watch it again and again.