We’ve been here for 6 days, and this is the first time that I’ve gotten internet access, so I just posted what I had originally written for the previous post. I ended up revising this post, below, so that it is updated for today (Friday).
Well, sickness hit many of the staff after only being here 2 days. Many people were wondering if it was a virus going around or food poisoning. Since it lasted 24 hours or less, and it wasn’t passed around to anyone else, the conclusion is food poisoning. I’m not sure how some got it and some didn’t when we’ve all eaten the same thing, unless it was just one batch of something that was bad. I think there were about 15 who were sick (out of around 100 people in our group). Our team leader was hit the worst. He ended up getting put on an antibiotic for a bacterial infection and later was taken to the hospital. He had some internal bleeding. His stomach and surrounding areas are very sensitive due to him having colon cancer 20 years ago, so when he got sick, the throwing up caused him to tear something internally. The doctors put the tube down his throat the next day and said that there was no bleeding, so it must have healed. He was released around lunch and then taught in the afternoon. Thankfully, the national director was with him the entire time to translate and help. Albania has a social medical system (like the rest of Europe). The kind of care you tend to get in many of the Eastern European countries depends on what kind of money you give the doctors and nurses “under the table”. We found out that it is a big deal to have connections in Albania to get good care too, so the national director was able to do some of that as well. It is sad and frustrating to hear stories from the staff about the corruption with the medical social system, so I am thankful that Trent was able to get good care (at least we hope that they didn’t miss something or misdiagnose something… which did happen when he had internal bleeding and was in a Hungarian hospital a little over a year ago).
We (the Americans) can’t drink the water here, but since many Albanians were sick too, that wasn’t the problem. Gary, Ethan and I are drinking bottled water and brushing our teeth with the sink water. Before everyone got sick I was already praying for God to keep me and the baby healthy, especially since this is technically a 3rd world country (however, not like many parts of Africa).
I wasn’t able to tell if I got the sickness that everyone had or not because I already have many of the symptoms with being pregnant. I do think that I was effected some at first, but not as badly as some others. However, my stomach started giving me problems a day or so after everyone got sick. I felt bad for a couple of days and fine this morning until lunch, when I started feeling bad again. I think some of it for me is eating different kinds of food (which doesn’t normally bother me so much). Many of the foods are greasy, so Baby Rickard probably isn’t very happy about that. Gary was affected a little too, but not badly. Ethan didn’t seem to be affected too much until today. So, hopefully that won’t continue for him.
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