Softball Fever

21 de junio. So Monday was our arrival. Tuesday I awoke feeling slightly off. Some body aches and stomach issues. But alas, I hung out in the morning and waited for softball practice in the afternoon. Practice was 3 hours and difficult. Again, not sure as to why but my strength was slowly draining and the body pains, rising. At 7pm, we finished and I collapsed on the floor of my patio. Within minutes, the fever struck. With the help of Yoelbi, I made it to my bed, shaking with chills. The rest of the night was brought on by 102 fever, chills, body pains to the point of tears, headache, nausea (dry-heaving for a half an hour cuz I hadn't eaten since noon), and a weakness that hit so hard, I fell to the floor in my house trying to make my way to the latrine (yep, those kinds of stomach problems too). Yoelbi got Tylenol from the clinic around 11pm and my fever finally dropped and I was able to at least rest. But I spent the majority of the night into the madrugada tossing and turning in discomfort. Absolutely insane.  I was trying not to, but I couldn't get the thought of the Chimichunga out of my head.

The next day I awoke but stayed in my bed (mostly) until well into the late afternoon. I had no fever but the body pains and weakness lingered (no Chimichunga!). At 4pm, however, we had the committee meeting and I didn't want to miss it. I got a ride to the Cruce, thank god, and made it through the 3 hour meeting. We have made up a letter soliciting institutions and individuals for help, dates set to meet the first group, the next community meeting rescheduled, and a possible second location confirmed. The first location seems to carry many challenges and the second one is now becoming more ideal. But more details to come when we have more information. We also have an interview that we will be doing with every single community member to spread awareness and also gauge the conocimiento of what it means to have a Biblioteca Tecnológica (new name!). Next Wednesday all 5 of us will be trekking the neighborhood to complete it :). Not my idea-and I love it. **Also, forgive me for not writing about the day we visited the Internet Center in Hipolito (built by the community and a PC Volunteer, Damion. I've been trying to find a way to get the pictures up here on my tablet from a camera that's not my own and without the adapter... Failing miserably. It was a great trip though, we learned a lot of needed steps, and I got home at 10pm with a belly full of mangoes and an energy level through the roof with excitement :) 

Thursday was game day! I spent the morning washing my clothes by hand (after two river-trips), collecting money from my girls, and donating quite a bit more so as to ensure our truck ride. At 2 we were off, jam-packed in the back of the small pick up truck. Sadly, we lost all three games we played... No shocker but I also batted horribly. Talk about embarrassment when the few Dominican men from DaJabón  come up and ask why I sucked so much that day cuz normally that's not the case haha. Of course, me being me, I just wanted to get out of there and never play again. Haha but I probably will continue :P

Just as we finished up a huge construction truck shows up with, I swear, half of my community. The men were up next to play and so I changed and stayed to watch. Aaaaaand.... They lost both games too. Damn. But it was way more fun and impressive watching them play than us.

At midnight we piled into the truck and uncomfortably (very) headed home. The driver was insane (not sure if he was sober...) and we were quite scared on every twist and turn he took with acceleration instead of with breaks. Gracias a Dios we made it injury-free and off to bed I went.

Friday was quite uneventful as I awoke late and proceeded to pass out shortly after with TiTin a donde Nena after lunch. I finally got my ass up and went home and forced myself to at least start organizing the boxes of books Ann brought me so I would at least feel like I'm doing something productive! So far 87 books have been counted, organized by category and written down. I've got the other box to do today (Saturday) and eventually I'll make tags to be placed inside each saying who it was donated by. 

I do feel better despite minor aches and the remaining bathroom issues so mañana I'm headed to Restauración until Monday to help out the gals from FIMRC.

Much love and besos.