on being sick

Part of adjusting to a new culture is always getting sick, right?? In Canada, I have the immune system of a rock. I’m rarely sick enough that I can’t work and am bedridden, but I’ve been hit and have never experienced a sickness like this before. It started as a migraine on Saturday – I guess I’ve never actually had a migraine before because I could not imagine the incomprehensible head pain prior to this experience. Every move I made felt like someone was smashing my head with a hammer. I took some Advil and assumed I’d be better in the morning, but it was worse. On Sunday came the nausea and it didn’t stop until Tuesday night. I’ve never experienced vomiting continuously for 3 days straight. Luckily I have access to the doctor at the hospice, who gave me prescription migraine medicine on Monday and told me “it’s a miracle tablet, you’ll go to sleep and when you wake up it will be gone.” Unfortunately I woke up with more vomiting. So all this to say... after 5 different medications I’m finally feeling ok... and hats off to those of you who go through this regularly. I don’t know how you do it.

The ladies at the hospice aren’t convinced that it’s only a migraine. Could be anything, they say. Maybe viral, maybe I shouldn’t drink the water, maybe it was something I ate. Not sure, but I don’t ever want to go through this again!

Sorry for the depressing update... this is all part of traveling I suppose (as I recall, I was also quite sick when I was in Kazakhstan... hmm...). So in Krista vs the World, the world has definitely won this one.

I’ll wrap up with a few more pictures. So far I’ve only taken pictures on my phone so they’re not amazing quality, but I’ll take some better ones soon.

This is the soup kitchen I help at on Thursdays and Fridays. We prepare and serve cabbage and rice – those two big pots can feed over 50 kids.

Some of the kids eating. They come in shifts.

View from the soup kitchen

Woman pumping water for her home