Vomiting Volunteers

Despite the leeches and monkeys, you can probably tell from the past few blogs that we volunteers had a lovely time on our trip to Thekkady. What I haven't yet mentioned is the awful time we've all had since returning. Every single one of us, as well as our Achen, fell ill between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

My sickness hit first, but I actually had the least of it. I was incredibly nauseous all throughout Saturday night. It started as I was getting ready for bed and just got worse and worse as the night went on. I woke up every single hour feeling more and more nauseous. Luckily, I had a supply of Pepto Bismol tablets close at hand. In the morning, I did try to eat breakfast, but I could only manage half a banana and half a piece of bread. My body obviously didn't want food, and it told me that loud and clear with a horrific bout of vomiting that occurred around 10 on Sunday morning. Thankfully, I'd stayed home from church. After that incident, although I couldn't stomach even the thought of eating, I started to feel much better. And that's all it was for me - my first tummy problem since arriving. And by Sunday afternoon, I was nearly myself again.

Jenika called me on Sunday evening, and the first thing she said was, "How are you feeling?" I thought, "How odd, did she read my mind?" Turns out she didn't need to; she'd had her own horrific bouts of vomiting (and other episodes that go with tummy illnesses) earlier in the day, and she had wondered if she wasn't the only one. And, one-by-one, we learned that each one of us had fallen ill, including Thomas John Achen.

It could have been water; it could have been food; it could even have been a really great volunteer-bonding exercise. In any case, it's all out now.