Alina Gets Sick

I woke in the middle of the night to Alina running to the bathroom and the sound of vomiting.  When she stopped, I got her cleaned up and set large bowl next to her as she laid back down in the bed.  Since it was about 1:00 in the morning, I did the best I could to clean up the bathroom (it was everywhere), and then headed back to bed, since I normally get up about 3:00.  Alina has been sleeping with me at night, mostly to get her a little more acclimated to Honduras.  She's had quite the "culture shock" when she first came down, although it's getting a little easier every day.  Now the typical illness of heading to a foreign country has finally reached her.  As the day went on, her fever got higher and higher.  I did need to stick her in a cool shower at one point, which she didn't like at all (it was her first cold shower ever with the purpose of trying to break a fever).  I wanted to wait the standard 24-hours and try natural ways to get her fever to break before resorting to medicine, since that would just "tide the fever over" until the next day.  Since she had been up quite a bit of the night, I decided to head out & tackle my responsibilities in short bursts, stopping back in to check on her every chance I could...but that she would be able to sleep some of the fever off.

I headed first to the little girls circle.  Gabi led the circle, but there were so many volunteers around that the girls paid little attention...which Gabi made note of.  After breakfast, I stopped home to check on Alina.  She got up to unlock the door and said she had been sleeping.  I made sure she drank a bunch of water before heading back to the little girls house to walk them to school.  I am so glad that the apartment we are staying in is so close to the little girls' house, so that I have ability to check on her like this.  I walked the girls to school and then began my classes for the day.  Today's classes are mostly 6th graders, so I had to teach in the Narnia books.  I have gotten caught up in these books, although my plan is to finish the book and planning before I leave Emmanuel...and that'll be a long way to go yet.  I had forgotten to check how many classes were on "prize day" (a day that Amy would celebrate with the students if they had 4 good behavior weeks in a row).  I'm giving the hot chili coated mango suckers to the children for prize day, and I needed to run home to grab just a few more that I was short.  I was so glad that Julie (a volunteer from the Maryland group) had been working with me all week and had seen how I had been leading classes.  She said she'd be comfortable enough leading the 6th graders while I ran back to grab some suckers.  She did a GREAT job!

After classes, I walked the little girls back to their house to have lunch, and then back to school.  After leaving them at school for the afternoon I headed to the orphanage snack shop, where I bought a chicken sandwich for Alina...something a little less "greasy" for when she would regain her appetite, as well as a 7Up.  I also ordered a baleada (a type of burrito) for myself, and they now have a COLD snack shop where they make smoothies!  I tried a blueberry-banana smoothie.  It was very good.  They do sell ice cream cones at this cold snack shop too, and have about 8 different flavors to choose from.  It was at the store that I found out there is a volunteer here with dengue fever right now.  I got a little worried, so I stopped back to the apartment to check on Alina once again.  Her fever seemed to be getting higher (which is what it was at this time during the day that she got the cold shower I mentioned above).

When I walked the girls back to their house, the Maryland group was waiting to give them their afternoon devotions on being God's princess (since God is the King).  They had styrofoam crowns for the girls to decorate with jewels, and then taught the girls how to walk like a princess, wave like a princess, and finally curtsy like a princess.  The girls had a TON of fun!  Before leaving, one of the Maryland moms asked about Alina and offered 2 tylenol pills, which I figured I'd give her before evening came...to get through the night.

The little girls had supper and then we bathed them.  Karelia lent me a thermometer from the clinic for me to monitor Alina's temperature for the night.  Unfortunately after the first measurement I took (102.0), the battery on the thermometer died and I was not able to check anymore through the night.  I decided to not go to the evening services today since Alina's temperature was so high.  I did hear later that I missed a very emotionally moving testimony by one of the Maryland group members.  Alina took 1 adult tylenol prior to heading to bed for the evening.  She hadn't vomited all day and each time I checked in on her, I made sure she was drinking enough water.  I had been praying that it was just the sun & dehydration, rather than dengue.