The sickness

So what do you do when you get a phone call from your team leader while you are running errands telling you that one of your students needs to be taken to the hospital and you need to come get him right away? Remain calm, is my theory. And go get the student right away. That is what happened last Tuesday afternoon while I was at the bank. The funny thing was that it was fairly easy to remain calm because the symptoms relayed to me about this student's condition were: "he feels weak." Um, I don't know about anyone else, but I have felt weak before and it did not equal a trip to the hospital. So anyway, we hurried back to the base, where Chad, the student in question, was looking worse than weak. Apparently he had thrown up like 8 times in the last few minutes and all of his muscles started spasming, and he could barely talk. Kind of alarming, really.

So... 5 hours and a THOUSAND DOLLARS later (thank God for insurance!), Chad had been given who even knew how many units of antibiotics and pain killers and sedatives and at least 3 liters of fluid, and was on and off of an oxygen mask, and had x-rays, and all kinds of other things while I sat there and prayed. The murky verdict at the end of all of this was that he had food poisoning, or maybe a virus, or maybe some other bacteria. And the puking caused some kind of electrolyte imbalance which led to an anxiety attack, possibly. He was not better, but we took him to our friend Carrie's house. She's a nurse, plus has air conditioning and hot water, so it seemed like the best option. The next morning I did not feel good, and neither did two other girls on the team, so we headed over to Carrie's, too, and Carrie also didn't feel well. Our best guess is that we were somehow infected at the waterfall Carrie took us to Monday that week. Anyway, none of the rest of us were as bad off as Chad-- we made sure to drink as much as possible-- so we were able to get back to the base the next day. It's been a week of doing a little bit of stuff and then taking time out to rest. Being sick is terrible, and makes me feel useless. On the other hand, it's a good chance to ponder why we react to things in certain ways: why does my not being able to really contribute to what's going on for a couple of days make me feel so bad? Where is my worth really found? Oh, ponderings.

Anyway, we're all feeling better (most of the time) now, and are headed off to help out at a chapel this morning, so I'd better go!

Scatterbrained?

I'm pretty sure that the Chinese New Year just happened a few weeks ago-- which means that it is no longer the year of the rat. Which is why I was slightly dismayed this week when a HUGE rat ran into the room that I share with the three girls on the outreach team. Luckily, only one of the other girls was there. We have sworn each other to secrecy from the other two until we're on the airplane to Korea. Sometimes there are things that you should not say to people who have to sleep in a room with the doors and windows open all of the time. Anyway, the rat ran straight into a corner of our room and stayed under the furniture there for a while. Rebekah and I stood on our beds and stared at the area for a few minutes, before concluding that we needed someone else to get rid of the rat, so we woke up Caleb, who came into the room with a large stick. Do all guys sleep with a large stick or baseball bat within reaching distance? Just a question. (I guess the guys had a stick to chase the boonie dogs that are all over the place here away. But I was amazed in the moment at the speed with which he appeared, and that he had time to get such a perfect stick.) Anyway, he did get rid of the rat quickly. It ran out the door and we tried to pretend it had never happened. Except for now.

Anyway, all encounters with rats aside, it's been a good week. Things are starting to come together a little for the DTS here-- which is still something that freaks me out a bit. But would it be worth it if it didn't? I don't know. It's kind of irrelevant, anyway.

The team is doing a great job here. They are really positive and fun to be around, and are reaching out to people wherever they go. Just the other day they met this girl at the beach and talked to her for ages... it's interesting how much more loving I usually feel when I don't feel pressured to be loving. Sometimes on outreach you get this "outreach mentality" of constantly needing to validate everything you're doing by throwing a little gospel in. But what I really want is for the gospel to permeate my life and for this good news to just be automatic in everything I do. Grocery shopping, swimming, whatever... I want to reach out to the people around me out of an inherent love and understanding of God's heart for them, not out of duty. I think that this team does a good job of that.

Anyway, random thoughts from week six on Guam.