Sick and Down for the Count

I wake up a little earlier each day because I'm having a harder time following the migration patterns of my personal belongings in my room. I think my sunglasses entered into the Bermuda Triangle although I found where Esmeralda hung my hat. I only spent 15 minutes mapping out all the longitude and lattitude lines of my room in order to find it. Then, off I went to start my day starting with a couple of sneezes.

Interestingly, whenever someone sneezes, people say "salud" for health. On the second sneeze, they say "dinero" for money. On the third sneeze, they say "amor" for love. As Gladis tells me, if you have dinero, then you have love and so you really only need two blessings. Here, I took a photo of a man right after he sneezed.

At the clinic, I played pharmacist and calculated how much medicine the kids would need for their parasitic conditions. I might need my own stool sample checked at the clinic since the ceviche took me down yesterday. I spent most of my time comforting my sad stomach. Normally, my stomach can weather any street vendor in any country, but ceviche in Guatemala? Bad idea. This is where survival of the most intelligent occurs, and I failed miserably. I gave in and dispensed Cipro to myself out of my drug bag. Later that evening, I watched Michael Moore´s Sicko documentary out of inspiration.

My awesome health insurance in the States that paid for just about every hospital visit, overnight stay, and drug last year ends in July. After that, I can either spend $455/month in COBRA, go without, or find some other plan. Since I don't have an income, but I do have a jumbo mortgage, a line of credit, and student loans, I will most likely go with another cheaper international plan that includes medical evacuation. Knowing me, I might just need it. However, after watching Sicko, I might be better off with just using the cheap and available Guatemalan health services.

At the clinic today, I watched as one of the teachers taught the 11-14 year olds about vitamins and puberty. I don't think my Spanish is advanced enough for those topics and I hope I can just teach the first graders about hygiene and nutrition. I may end up giving misinformation otherwise and then these kids will forever be scarred. I can not even imagine the ramifications.