Post-Fever Update

The worst of the typhoid fever is well and truly over, the antibiotics are really working their magic. I had a couple of days where I just lay in bed, totally lethargic, unable to even get downstairs to get a cup of tea. But after that I started to feel a little better- I ate some chicken and pasta on Sunday. I haven´t eaten much but toast before or since but it´s quite tricky to get typhoid-fever-friendly food here. I´m doing fine though, and am really pleased to be over the worst. Apparently it´s a very, very common disease out here especially for travellers and even people who´ve had the immunisation (like me) can still get a moderate dose which is bad enough to be honest, I wouldn´t want a full one. But yeah, I´m well on the mend and have much more energy than I did.
Yesterday I started at work at San Juan de Dios, the disabled clinic (Marco´s kindergarten is on holiday for two weeks because of National Peru Day, so we start there on August 11th and are working a variety of different placements in between), and I continued there today. It´s really, really difficult. I can´t stress that enough. There were times when I felt so weak (partially becauase of recovering from the illness as well, I suppose) and like I was rubbish with the kids and they hated me and just cried, and I just wanted to sit in the bathroom and cry for a bit. Luckily I couldn´t remember which bathroom I was supposed to use, so I had to get back out there, and the rewards for perseverance are infinite. The kids all have incredibly unique personalities- some are unpleasant, really bossy and fussy, and won´t share. But for every irritation there´s a moment where a kid smiles because of something you did (I usually resort to pulling horrible faces at them which they seem to like) which, and I know how cheesy it sounds, makes up for every hard bit. Normally when there´s nothing else to do we end up resorting to wheelchair races which the kids absolutely love, they go crazy for it, real little adrenaline junkies.
Yesterday I had to improvise a bit, because we had to stay indoors because of the rain and the cold. I stayed with Wilson most of the day because I was still feeling pretty unsure and he sort of acts as my anchor at the clinic, and makes me feel better when I feel like I´ve screwed up. He has this amazing toy truck and he started throwing it out of his wheelchair, and I thought he didn´t want it anymore so I moved to take it away and he started shaking his head at me, so I gave it back to him and he threw it back out, and the process continued. Eventually I figured out we were playing how-many-ways-can-Wilson-throw-a-truck-out-of-his-chair, which he thought was a brilliant game. When he got tired of that, I made a little paper aeroplane out of a scrap piece of paper and he loved it, that kept him busy and happy for the rest of the afternoon- it was brilliant, I really felt like if I hadn´t been there his day wouldn´t have been as good.
Today I branched out a bit, we took lots of kids up to visit the animals at the Clinic- I made about six round trips with different kids and they loved it. Wilson (of course I took him, I think I´m becoming a bit emotionally attached...) went crazy over the horse but I couldn´t figure out how to manoeuvre his wheelchair so he could stroke it which was a shame. I´ve taught him my name and I think he knows it, either that or he makes indiscriminate sounds which are a bit like my name just by coincidence, I prefer to believe the former. The rest of the time I spent playing with various kids, I spent a lot of time with a kid called Elias who is very, very cute. I sang him a lullaby and he fell straight asleep- unfortunately just in time for dinner so he had a bit of a rude awakening courtesy of one of the nurses who splashed some cold water over his face. He was not happy and made it really, really difficult for me to feed him, eventually one of the nurses had to take over. I brushed his teeth and helped out with Wilson, said goodnight to everyone and left. We were only there four hours but it´s so exhausting it really feels like a full day. Tonight, me, Heather, Becca and Sam (a new volunteer) are going out to dinner, and then we´ll probably get an early night because we have to get up about 8am tomorrow to go and visit a new orphanage that we have the option of working in instead of San Juan de Dios a bit this week and next.

Also, in case anyone´s missed it on facebook, please visit this address http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19769539757&ref=ts and sponsor us for our paraglide. It is a seriously worthwhile cause and there will be amusing photographic evidence of us hopefully not seriously injuring ourselves.

lots of love to everyone, hope you´re all well and living typhoid-fever-free lives xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx