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Published: August 14th 2010
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After a sleepless night I saw the sun come up this morning. I was still suffering through sweats and chills so I decided to skip breakfast. I did figure out a cocktail that helps if you happen to get sick in Ecuador:
4 Advil
3 Anti-Diarrheal tablets
2 Dramamine
Lots of water
Take all at once and then walk around very slowly the rest of the day.
I decided to go ahead and head to the village because I never really suffered from severe diarrhea or vomiting and I figured what else was I going to do? I really didn't feel like hanging out in my room all day.
By the time everyone was ready to board the bus around 8:30 I was doing better and grabbed my camera bag and headed out to meet up with everyone. Word had gotten out at breakfast that I was the first causality and there was genuine concern from the people in our group. I'm sure I was looking pretty pallid and sick but I decided to push through. As we made our daily stops around Ibarra I kept thinking I would catch a taxi back to the hacienda but
kept deciding against it. Danny sat down across form me and wanted to talk about what I thought about the village and any impressions I had up to this point. I was worried about spouting out gibberish but as it turns out it was a great way to take my mind off the sweating and chills.
The rest of the day was defined by extreme fatigue due to the exertions of the previous day and lack of sleep the night before. Fortunately, I still had not experienced severe diarrhea or vomiting, which was a good thing because the village had no running water. I spent the day helping out as much as I could but I was moving slow, both physically and mentally. I did help finish up with the windows in the shop and carried some 2 x 4's to the nursery but by that point my fever (or whatever it was) had broken and I ended up sweating through my shirt for about 30 minutes before it was over. After that I was physically much better, but extremely tired.
Dwayne and I were walking around and saw an older man carrying a machete so I thought
I would ask him about his work and fields. The machete was fairly large and the blade was uneven due to repeated sharpening over the years. As we were talking his son happened to walk by and the man directed him to take us to his field and show us the cane he grew. The sons name was John and he told us there are ten sugar cane harvest a year. Dwayne did the math and figured that's about 1 harvest every 5 - 6 weeks. I later found out that sugar cane does not have to be replanted every time and that once planted a farmer can get harvests for about 2 or 3 years from the one planting. As is custom, John pulled some out of the ground and gave Dwayne and I out own stalk. At this point I was sort of burnt out on sugar cane and my stomach was not in the mood for it so I nibbled on it until I could come across a kid to hand it off to, which wasn't hard to find in Pusir.
That night the plan was to go out to eat pizza in Ibarra. I decided
to skip it so I could get a good nights sleep instead. After everyone left I stepped out on the wrap around porch to get some air before turning in. I could hear a party somewhere near the courtyard of the hacienda. We had met some people from France the night before who said they were getting married so I figured it was their group. I could also hear fireworks somewhere away from the hacienda. As I stood there I noticed a lot of smoke drifting through the grounds of the hacienda. At first I assumed it was from the fireworks before realizing it was clouds. On our drive into Ibarra we had noticed that the clouds were very low around the mountains and now I could see that cloud cover in my front yard! I finally fell asleep around 8:00 and woke up at 4:00 feeling 110% better. So, in addition to the cocktail prescribed above, include in that at least 8 hours of solid sleep.
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mom
non-member comment
sickness
Ugh, but glad it didn't last long. You were a trouper to face the day but I know you didn't want to miss anything if you didn't have to!