Spencer and I were officially initiated to Team Macedonia: we caught the same virus everyone else on our team had before we arrived. Kate got it first, then me, and then Spencer who got it the worst. We had a few late nights with a crying baby, which if her stomach hurt as much as ours, I don't blame her. She cried through the night so much that our landlord "baba" came down to see if she could help, which was interesting since she speaks no English and we speak little Macedonian. We went to only liquids, and Kate was going to be on American Tylenol, but all three bottles and the one bottle of Motrin I had were all on the recall list. So, off to the hospital to see the Pediatrician. Amy, or team leader's wife went with us to translate, and boy am I ever glad, because there is no way I would have been able to manage alone. The hospital was interesting, very institutional-like, white walls, benches in the halls, people waiting, going in doors and coming out of doors. All the writing and posters was in Macedonian. It was like walking into a very old school, the classrooms being different doctor's offices. We waited for the doctor, a very nice woman, who then sent us to get blood work done. Amy then went to the first floor to pay for the blood work and brought the receipt back to the second floor so we could get the results of the blood work to then take back to the pediatrician. We waited again, and then the doctor gave us three prescriptions: one antibiotic for Kate's ear, nose drops and ear drops. She recommended some Macedonian type tylenol also. Amy helped us get the prescriptions filled, and then helped us get a taxi too. Back to our house we go. The "tylenol" helped Kate sleep, just in time for me to get sick. Then, both Kate and I slept while Spencer went to help with the Samaritan's Purse wheelchair distribution. But, an hour later, in comes Spencer, sick as a dog too. We all stayed pretty close to the bathroom, needless to say. I finally felt good enough to go to the store to get some Sprite and chicken noodle soup in a packet. I made some soup, but I was the only one able to eat it. Later, after Kate went to sleep, our team leaders called and offered to bring us some American Jello from their stash of "things you can only get from the States"--which is HUGE! How selfless of them! So, we took them up on the offer and happily ate some orange Jello, which satisfied our hunger for a bit. We rested most of today, but made a trip to the store to buy some diapers. Baba brought Kate some orange juice and cookies, which Kate ate happily!
We are continuing our language training; our first week was cut from 5 days to 2 due to sickness. Hopefully it will be a better week next week! But, on a brighter note, Spencer was invited to a "Name Day" party. Name day in Orthodoxy is when you celebrate the specific day for your saint that you are named after. It is celebrated like the opposite of a birthday party, instead of the birthday person being served first, the name day person serves everyone else. It is customary for each guest to bring something like candy or chocolate, so Spencer bought some to take. He said it was all very neat and he met a lot of new people!
