Yes, you read that right. I pooped….in a cup….in ecuador.
It started when we left our ministry site in Trujillo, Peru. Our entire team had developed some sort of stomach illness ranging from diarrhea to fever during that month but we thought we had put it behind us. Boarding the bus, I knew something wasn’t right because of a sharp pain in my stomach. We did our debrief/ 4 day break in Banos, Ecuador….in which I spent most of my time IN the bano. We got to Quito this week and began our ministry. One of my teammates hurt her leg during an adventure and needed to go to the hospital so I decided to tag along…after all, 10 days of issues will push anyone to the edge.
So, our team name is “First Responders”…. And I haven’t been in a hospital since I was two or three. Ironic, I know. Thankfully a teammate spoke Spanish so I had the wonderful pleasure of trying to describe the symptoms of my bowel movements to her, who then, with barely a flinch, had to repeat them to the doctor. She gave me a cup with a lid and a bottle of the devil’s version of Gatorade. She said it would make me go, and I didn’t ask for details. So we sat in the waiting room, people watching, and wondering what sort of illness the person who sat in our chairs before us had. I think we all went through a full bottle of hand sanitizer. We carried on our conversation when all of a sudden, I understood “This will make you go” in the fullest sense of the phrase. I scrambled to the banos muy rapido, cursing that despicable Ecuadorian Gatorade-flavored devil’s drink.
Returning with the…ahem….sample, They sent it to the lab and returned with the results. I had amoebas of some sort. “No problem” they said, “This prescription will fix you”, and promptly prescribed 6 pills…..and six more of that awful drink. Sigh.
It’s been 3 days since then and I still have the amoebas, one teammate has traveler’s diarrhea, another has a parasite, and the others are still trying not to bite the bullet.
That moment when the First Responders are reminded that God is the Great Physician.
