Honduras hit me hard, y’all. I have been talking about going on the Race for so long that I never actually dreamed I’d be on it. So when I finally got here, Honduras hit me like a slap in the face. My whole team seemed to just dive right into our new normal. I, on the other hand, needed some time to adjust. The first four or five mornings when I would wake up I would have a mini panic session. Each lasted about ten minutes and then throughout the day I would have little flashes of “What the actual heck am I doing with my life?!”.
The first month on the field has come with quite a few adjustments. I’m learning how to live with five other women, how to hand wash clothes, and burn trash. My body is also adjusting as I’ve faced sickness and severe sunburn. Most importantly, I’m learning to be flexible and ready for anything.
I had began to come to terms with what this next year is going to look like when our pastor decided to use the church welcome to tell the entire congregation about how I’d been having diarrhea. Y’all. What the actual heck was this man thinking? I was absolutely mortified. My whole team was falling out of their chairs in laughter. Everyone in the church had turned to look at me and all I could do was just pretend like it wasn’t happening.
I had gotten sick at the beginning of last week and my team and I decided that I should go see a doctor. In trying to get information about the clinics that are near by, my sweet squad leader decided we needed to tell Pastor Rony all of my symptoms. (We were in no way thinking that he would later share that information with the entire church.) So we told him about the stomach pains and diarrhea and he insisted that I should not go to the doctor and instead he would stop by the church every few hours and give me random medicines. I’m certain that I took Alka-Seltzer and Pepto-Bismol but other than that I have no idea what he gave me. I just took whatever medicine he brought me.
I spent most of my second week in the bathroom but I was starting to feel better by Sunday. The stomach pains were gone and the diarrhea wasn’t as frequent. That morning the whole church was taking a bus to the river for baptisms and since I was feeling better I decided I would go too. Then right as the baptisms were beginning, the diarrhea came on strong and I HAD to go to the bathroom. But there were no bathrooms. I grabbed one of my teammates and told her we were going to find a place for me to go. We found a spot off to the side and she stood out towards the front to keep watch. On one side of the woods there was a beautiful baptism ceremony and on the other side, there was me. Going diarrhea in the woods.
It’s only week two.
