A Retreat to the Country...With all of its surprises

Friday November 20th 2009 11:30am

The recent lack of posts will all be explained in due time:


Saturday November 14th
Earlier in the week, Betza´s sister Hortencia had called and invited me to a birthday party that they were having for Betza and for her mother (who has the same birthday) at their house. I graciously accepted, and was excited for the invitation. She told me to go home with Betza on Saturday after work.

I didn´t have a class, but I came to be open for discussion and questions with the students. Although none took me up on discussions about the class, I sat outside for a while and talked with a few of them about a range of topics. It was fun.

After work, I went with Betza to the local bus station, and followed her onto the bus. After a little ways of driving, I noticed that we weren´t heading in the direction that we had previously to get to her house. I asked her about it, and she explained that it was not a birthday party at their house in the city, but rather a birthday party at their family house 3 hours away in the country. We were going to be there all weekend!

3 hours of windy dirt/gravel mountain roads and queaziness later, we arrived a Piedra Gorda, or Fat Rock. I was introduced to her mom, dad, eight sisters, various nephews and neices, a few cousins, and a couple of neighbors. We had dinner and a piñata to celebrate the birthdays.

That night, before going to bed, the guys who I was sharing a room with, let me know that I would probably want to sleep under my blanket in to avoid the mosquitos. Although I tried to fall asleep under the blanket, the variety of farm animal noises mixed with babies crying led to a dismal night´s sleep.


Sunday November 15th
I was up and at ´em by 6:00 and ready for whatever the day would bring. Almost. I asked what we were doing in the morning, and Betza told me that we would be doing some chores to help out around the house. I was fine with this, and happy to help out, until I realized that "doing chores" meant "not doing chores" because I am a man, and men don´t do those things.

Then, we got ready to go to church. I asked where the shower was, and was directed to the middle of the backyard. Showering at Betza´s house was probably the single most uncomfortable thing I have ever done in my life. The location was unfortunate, but the fact that the walls came only to half-way up my chest was what really sold the experience.

I had to undress in the shower and throw my clothes over the walls, and while I was getting ready, the entire family decided that it was their time to move about the yard. Some sisters chased their kids. Some sisters brushed their teeth. For a while, mom came over right next to me to wash some clothes. As I showered, there was an intense amount of eye contact avoidance and general discomfort on my part. I pretended I didn´t hear mom when in the middle of my shower and her clothes washing, she asked me about my political views on the situation in Honduras.

Church was fine, and afterward, we took a walk down to a nearby creek and the kids played in the water for a while. I came back and took a nap under the saftey of a vacant mosquito net, and didn´t wake up until it was time for dinner.

In the middle of cooking dinner, the power went out, and I was asked to help escort a neighbor across the village back to her home. I agreed, and as I walked across the futbol field in the middle of the night, I looked up at the sky and was amazed at how many stars there were. I had never seen so many in my whole life.

I felt very small, and immediately wanted nothing more in that moment than to lie there and watch the stars while having Keven explain what he knows about them to me. (He did that once at camp, and it was a pretty cool experience for me)

When I got back, I finished eating dinner, and then everyone went to bed because they were bored without the power.


Monday November 16th

Monday morning the bus left Piedra Gorda at 5:00am. The bus ride didn´t fare well for me and I was very close to being very sick, especially after the little boy infront of me beat me to the punch...all over the floor and my shoes.

When I finally got home around 10:00, I drank some water and fell asleep. When I woke up in the afternoon, I realized that my hands were kind of itchy. I looked down to notice that my hands were completely red.

As the evening wore on, my hands itched more and more. It got to the point that night where I could not even sleep because of how often I needed to itch at my hands.


Tuesday November 17th

Tuesday morning, Freddy took me to the hospital to get my hands looked at. After a long wait, the dermatologist told me that it looked as though I had picked up some virus or something over the weekend. She wanted to run some blood tests and asked that I come back later that day when they got the results.

I spent the day trying to relax, and headed back to the hospital around 4. I picked up the results to my test, took them to the dermatologist, and she informed me that the tests confirmed the initial feelings of a virus. That unfortunately meant that there was no medicine, and that I was just supposed to ride it out over the next 4-7 days. She did tell me, however, that orange juice was supposed to help, so on my way home, I stopped and bought two gallons.

The rest of the day, I drank OJ and tried to not scratch at my hands.


Wednesday November 18th
The doctor had told me not to go to work, and to just relax at home and drink OJ.

Thursday November 19th
So that is what I did for two days.

Early Thursday morning my hands started to look and feel a little bit better, and throughout the day, I noticed them itching less and less. Before the whole rash issue, I was supposed to make dinner for Freddy and Yasmine, and when Yasmine called to see if we were still on for our dinner, I let her know about the skin condition, but I also let her know that I was feeling better.

By 7:30pm, my guests arrived to the dinner of Chicken Parmesean, and the three of us enjoyed talking about the favorites (Susan) in each of our respective homes. It was fun.

After dinner, they headed out, and I finished watching what was left of Thursday night television before falling asleep peacefully without scratching at my hands.