Things have been flying by like crazy down here. I can't believe it's already April and I'm starting to plan out what I'm doing this summer and where I want to travel at the end of the program. My to-do list is getting super long, but that's besides the point.
When I last wrote we were getting ready to go to the northern providence of Salta. I felt a little strange two days before we left but thought nothing of it. Argentine food is full of meet, bread and other such heavy foods and I just figured I was still not quite use to it. I felt so alright the next day though that I spent the day at an American bar watching NCAA basketball. It was so nice to indluge in american food, sports and english again, even if I was super embarrassed to be at this Ex-pat Bar. (Well, in retrospect I guess I wasn't too embarrassed because I'm heading back there in a few hours for Final Four basketball! Makes me miss being at school and sitting on a couch with all my guy friends..)
Bascially, to make a long story short, I spent the next four days, including the entire plan ride to Salta being miserably sick. At first my group just thought I had altitude sickness, then they thought I had food poisoning but by day four of being stuck in the hotel as the rest of the group attended classes, went up the gondola into the mountains and explored
Salta they decided it was time for me to go a doctor. I spent the afternoon in the tiny emegency clinic (and actually learned a lot about the public/private heath care system down here) and they finally told me I had a parasite called Blastocytis Hominis. Pretty exciting stuff.
I think the worst part of the experience for me was realizing how much being sick made me miss home. It's so interesting the things we take for granted (ie being able to explain your symptoms in your native langauge) and so many aspects of the health care system that are so cultural. For example, the first doctor I saw came up to my hotel room. While he spoke to me about what was going on with me (for a total of 5 minutes) his assistant was preparing an anti-nausea medicine for me. However, they didn't explain that, so he just came up to me in the middle of my conversation and started giving me this huge shot. I freaked out, as any of us would, laying in bed, in the middle of trying to explain why you can't keep food or water down for more than 5 minutes. Needless to say, I was very homesick (really for the first time in my life) for those four days.
I do finally feel like myself now though. I took three rounds of meds and have to repeat again in a week to kill the eggs (ew) that might have grown in my intestines. Bascially, I'll never dirnk tap water again-- even though I only did it about twice. Buenos Aires water is suppose to be some of the best in South America and totally portable for Americans. Of cousre, I just had the bad luck to gulp some down with a parasite in it.
I'd love to continue but I'm off to catch my bus to head to Chinatown, and then to watch some Final Four basketball. I'll write about my rural homestay (which they let me go on by a slight margin) and how things are going in preparation for Pesach, Semana Santa and leaving for my family's casa de campo and then Bariloche next sunday. Whew. Time just needs to slow down.
Chau. Thinking of everyone back in the states.
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