Chonte Dios That I Am a UD Alum

Chonte Dios means Thanks be to God in Mam, the Mayan language spoken in Comi.

I haven´t updated lately (1) because I haven´t been by a computer because (2) I haven´t been feeling very well. I have been having various symptoms for over a week, and I had thought that it was just my body adjusting to an 8,000 ft altitude, new food, and TONS of rain. Since Monday, though, the lump in my throat just kept getting bigger. Wednesday morning, I tried calling most of my immediate family, and I couldn´t believe that none of the tech savvy Ebetinos on Acrewood Dr. were available to talk to me haha, even though I wasn´t the easiest to understand with my swollen mouth. I reached my family doctor, thank goodness, and he recommended what I do. Kevin also called his doctor dad and I talked to him, so it was good to talk to doctors.

We decided that I needed to go to Xela, the biggest city near Comi, about 3 hours with taking two buses. Feeling up for the ride, I decided that I really wanted to see a doctor and get the right medicine. We were also planning on traveling to Xela the next day (Thursday) to spend the weekend in Xela with a lot of gringos enjoying the First Round of the World Cup. So, Kevin and I packed our bags for a long weekend of recovery and said goodbye to Franz and Doña Hilda (who we had been confusing the heck out of...every day for the past week a different one of the three of us was telling her we weren´t feeling good).

On the two buses to Xela, I did very well. I was pumped because that was a pretty big mental game for me, not feeling well but really having no choice but to suck up the pretty bumpy and crowded rides to Xela.

Here is why I am blessed to be from the beautiful University of Dayton. Upon arriving in Xela, we needed to take a Taxi van to the central park. This van holds around 15 people. Two people down from me was Karen, a UD grad student, who I had been trying to call earlier to see where a good doctor was (she never responded earlier because I had the wrong number). I was THRILLED to see her. We explained to her the situation, and she wanted to help me out. God Bless her! She took me to her Spanish school where she has been studying where I was able to pee (Ebetino females bladders are super weak, so at the time I was actually more worried about peeing than I was about my throat) and we talked to her teacher, who recommended a private hospital for us to go to.

We walked to the hospital, and I struggled to (1) speak and (2) explain that I think I need a strep culture in Spanish (¿¿¿Como se dice I NEED A STREP CULTURE???). The reception lady clearly didn´t understand me. She said something in Spanish to another worker, and it was along the lines of "this woman cannot speak SPANISH, so find her someone who can talk to her". BUT I CAN SPEAK SPANISH, I JUST CAN´T SPEAK RIGHT NOW!

Anyways, they walked away for a minute, came back out and took me into a room. I noticed a doctor was there. He was friendly and asked Kevin and I to sit down. He then asked me in Spanish if I was from Spain...I believe he thought I was from Spain because of my flushed face and frizzy hair. As I struggled to respond that no I am not from Spain but I do know Spanish, he interuppted me in English. He was trying to be sassy and I wasn´t in the mood, yet super relieved that he spoke English. While I explained my symptoms, he kept chiming in with clever little things and jokes and sick Laura just wasn´t having it. I finally said "look, I´ve come to find out what is wrong with me and I need medicine". Today was an exhausting day of traveling and I didn´t want to beat around the bush anymore. So, he examined me and gave me several prescriptions. We both thanked him, we left and went next door to fill the prescriptions, then I ate a McFlurry at McDonalds because I had been needing something to numb my throat (ha...).

I was truly one lucky girl today. Through all the traveling I was worn out physically but so many things went right for me in Xela that now I felt that I could fully recover. My friend Kate (also from UD) also happened to pass McDonalds at the same time we were in there, and I was so relieved to see her because I wanted to contact her but didn´t know how to reach her. LUCKY GIRL.

Thank you for reading this post. I hope it wasn´t too down beat, but I´m very hopeful that I will feel better after resting for the weekend in a place with warm water and lots of food varieties. I miss my America people!

I had watermelon this morning!

para buen salud,
Lowra