typhoid to machu picchu

the most frightening experience that i've ever had was in the hospital of peru.

after living for a couple of days in chinchero with host families learning how to weave for GIEU, some girls started to not feel so good. so our professor took six girls to the cusco city to get them checked. i was at the weaving center with couple of other girls when tati came to us with a serious face and told us to get ready to go to cusco. we found out that four girls out of six girls had salmonella and the professors wanted all of us to be checked just in case.

i thought, no worries for me since i don't feel sick at all.
but then the results came out that i had one of the highest level and the doctor told me that i had typhoid fever. she did not go about it the smoothest way possible. she looked at my results and looked at me with a frown and said "oooooooh, worst case yet. you have typhoid." then i was admitted to the hospital for the next three days where i experienced some things i never want to repeat in my life.

i woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. when i turned on the light i saw a long line of redness looped around my IV stand. i screamed when i realized that my own blood has gone all the way up the IV tube and the blood was going out and then back in to my body as i was standing there. the nurses came running in but then acted as though it was a no big deal and told ME that I should have been more careful. couple of hours later i woke up to my friend crying on the bed next to me because she was in so much pain from where the IV was. the nurse who took her IV out was not wearing gloves. and so much more.

i laughed at the fact at how ridiculous this whole situation was, which would then turn in to crying. i've realized how i've been taking everything that i have in america for granted and never took time to think about how previledged we are for having things that we don't think twice about. like being able to flush the toilet paper down the toilet.

a week after this mayhem, we were overjoyed at the fact that all sixteen of us were able to make it to machu picchu semi-healthy.

i'm so thankful that we all made it through in one piece and ended the program all together.
i'll never be able to forget the countless hours us girls spent talking about anything and everything, weaving a bag with norberta, going to the ancient ruins like it was our backyard with the little boys, seeing llamas everywhere, and just ebing part of another family.

oh, south america. bye for now.

lyla

back to the mountains..

the quito project ended last week and i´ve been with GIEU for the past four days now.

the last day of quito project went like this.

´boys, i´m leaving ecuador in two days! i´m going to miss you all!´
´nooooo, what are we going to do when you are not here?´
´oh, don´t worry! more tutors are coming this weekend and they will be here next week to work with you!´
´but, but, we´ve already fallen in love with all of you...´

after that was just tears and hugs and kisses until we really had to leave.
it´s so hard getting to know someone and then having to leave them once again.
i knew i was leaving them in three weeks and i actually tried to not get myself too attached, but that never seems to work.

i´ll be meeting new people once again and living with another host family who i know will become my own. there is always the fear of saying good byes, but the precious memories and relationships gained from it might be better than not even getting to know these amazing people.

so, i will open my heart once again and do my best to understand their culture, their way of life.

:)

lyla