I've been sick - thus the quiet time. After spending all day Sunday wiping Laura's nose for her - it was a constant faucet, I've never seen anything like it - SURPRISE! Fany and I both got sick Wednesday night.
I went to prayer group Wednesday feeling fine. We had a lesson from Pastor Peter before the time of prayer and I felt the right side of my throat getting sore. An hour later I was almost laid out in my chair, and I was not slain by the spirit. I was slain by a cold.
After looking through my cold supplies I saw that I had enough to make it through the night, but would need to buy more in the morning. As I pulled out of the garage the next day, Fany and Laura came out and stood at the edge of the driveway, ready to close the gate behind me. Both of their heads were hanging and their eyes were glazed over. They looked exactly the way I felt. I bought medicine for all of us.
We are all still drippy, sneezy and sometimes coughy, but I woke up at 7:30 today instead of 2 p.m., so I think I am better. We slept for the past 3 days. The highlight of our sleeping was when Laura sang to her mommy and rubbed her back. Fany and Santos sing, "Sleep my girl" (their own homemade song) to Laura so Laura sang, "Sleep my woman" to her mom. Hahaha! There was also a part about lions coming, but Laura didn't specify what would happen if lions came. We are able to laugh about it now.
Yesterday was Fany's best friend Cynthia's birthday. Since Cynthia always does special things for us, we wanted to do something for her. Our plan was to walk to the next colonia and buy a gift from the used clothing store, then make Fany's famous tacos. It was an ambitious plan considering we had barely been out of bed for three days. Fany came over at 10 a.m. and said she was ready to go. I apologized and said I couldn't go, but I would drive to the store in the afternoon if she wanted. Fany went alone and bought taco ingredients.
The electricity went out at 8 a.m. While Fany was shopping she heard a lady saying that the lights are out all over the country because of lack of rain. We also learned this week that the city is only sending us water 2 times per week for short increments of time. We are concerned that we might not get any water, or very little because we sit on top of a hill. It makes for pretty views of the city, but because we are up higher our water fills last. So if everyone's water tanks are low and the city sends water only for a couple of hours, it may not reach our water tank at all.
Apparently that is why the lights were out too. The country is not generating as much hydroelectric power as usual with no rain, so they turned off the lights all over. Fany's friends all over the country were without power. The worst news is that rain usually comes on the 5th of May, and then again in June when the rainy season hits. We are a long way from the rainy season, which didn't come until August or September (if I remember correctly) last year.
I am glad I'm not up in the mountains with the fires anymore. But the city doesn't control the water in the mountains so they don't have to worry as much about running out. Down here there are less fires, but also less water. I am always pretty water conscious, but I've started bathing like I did when I stayed at my brother's house. He has to pay for and haul in most of his water, so we used water sparingly. I hope the people down below me are using their water sparingly too! Fany and I are talking about buying new garbage cans so if the water does make it up here we can put the garbage cans in the shower and let the water collect there. Then we can use that water to bathe throughout the week.
Speaking of bathing, I hadn't bathed since Wednesday. Not because I was trying to save water, but because I was sick. I was dying for a shower. However, the only way you get hot water here is an electric heater attached to the shower head, so I would have to take a cold shower as long as the electricity was out. Normally not a big deal, but with a cold, not an appealing thought. Also I realized with no electricity there was no pump to pump even a cold shower into my house.
Fany and I decided we would wait until 5 to see if the power came on. If the power was not on by 5 we would scrap the cooking plan for Cynthia's dinner and buy fried rice from a nearby restaurant with a gas stove. It went off at 8 a.m. and came back at 4:45 p.m. We were happy.
I showered!!!! and ran to the store where I realized I was weaker than I expected, so I called my neighbor who attends my church and asked if he could bring the supplies I was assigned to bring to church. Even lifting a can of spaghetti sauce off the shelf was tiring.
We had a good time celebrating Cynthia's birthday and more importantly, Cynthia did too. We told her welcome to the house of the mucosas. That's what you call someone with a runny nose. As in mucous. I prefer runny nose over mucosa but it is funny to say. Cynthia seemed to have the sniffles too so she fit right in.
Last night I turned on FB for the first time since I got sick and saw that Karla is asking for prayers for Clara again, I sent her a message today because Karla said she hates it when everyone calls her phone to see how her Mom is doing.
I am craving Honeycombs today. Unfortunately, I have never seen Honeycombs in Honduras. I live in an almost strictly corn flake world.
Laura can sing the alphabet in English almost perfectly. She walks around singing it all day except she says, "Now I know my ABCs... HIJKLMNOP," at the end. I have told her what the words mean, hoping if she can understand the meaning she will be able to remember better, but no luck so far. Still, I am amazed by her. She is so smart!
Praying for rain and for Clara!
