An apple a day…

I guess I’m a little behind on my apple consumption. Sunday morning I woke up with a sore throat. I was hoping the sore throat had something to do with my less than superb night of sleep. I should have known better. My colds generally start with a sore throat in the morning.

By Sunday evening I had a full blown cold. I took a Nyquil. I’m not the biggest fan of random medication but Nyquil has won me over. Whenever I get sick, if I take one and get a good night’s sleep, I am my way to recovery. Really I think it’s the sleep that is the most beneficial so I cheat a little to get some.

Monday morning I woke around 9:00. Actually one time I woke up at 7:15 to get a shower before the water is turned off but was too late. The water situation however is another story :) Around 9:00 I thought to send a text message to my supervisor. In my Nyquil stupor I managed to get to the appropriate function on my phone. Then I promptly fell asleep. I woke to a blank screen on my phone, a clear indication that the well thought out message I had typed was only in my dream. I began to write the message in the real world. Trying to be clear and concise, I have to keep the message short to save money on my phone and I can’t abbreviate since the recipients are non-native English speakers, I thought about each sentence. Apparently I thought too hard because I fell asleep while thinking about the third sentence. I woke up a few minutes later with phone still in hand. I continued with my chore only to fall asleep one more time before managing to send the message. Did I mention that Nyquil really knocks me out?

I fell asleep again only to be awoken by my host grandmother who came up the stairs to check on me. My counterpart Mirela had called my host family to see why I wasn’t at work (she didn’t get the message in time). Later my supervisor Emilijano called to check on me. Then a neighbor who frequently hangs out at the small shop at the entrance to our compound courtyard came up with the older son to make sure I was doing ok. Katie came by bringing me a cold soda (which grandmother didn’t think was a good idea since it’s a cold beverage) and to keep me occupied for a spell. After returning home from work, the host father came and checked on me. In the evening Katie returned after taking care of some errands this time bearing the next disc of The West Wing Season One. While we were watching an episode, my host father stopped by with dinner for me, including a special soup prepared just for me.

I must say the attention is comforting. It’s also not at all what we would do back home. I mean, come on, I didn’t go to work or leave the house because I have a cold. All the attention seems odd but it’s nice too.

To really prove my point, Mirela just dropped by with another coworker. She just wanted to make sure I was doing all right. She brought two bananas and a jar of olives and gave me some advice for a speedy recovery.

I feel well enough to go back to work but I may stay one more day just because I don’t want to infect anyone else. I’ll probably just go in late and sleep off the Nyquil.