Todos están enfermos/Everyone’s sick

The clinics here on the ranch have seen their share of patients in the last couple weeks. About two weeks ago, the tap water (that we get from la posa/pond) had a brown, coffee-looking tinge to it. Soon after, the clinic declared that the water had bacterias and was unsuitable for drinking. Since then the ranch has been in a “water crisis” and has brought in truckloads of AguaAzul purified water to do all the cooking and drinking. But it was too late for many kids, employees, and volunteers on the ranch. Many came down with stomach problems, diarrhea, and vomiting. The clinic ordered the cocina/kitchen to follow a strict menu (a.k.a. “ranch diet”) to prevent more people from getting sick and to treat the people who were already sick. In the past week we have had a lot of tortillas, fruit, and bread, but not much else. One night we had plain pasta and a boiled plátano/plantain for dinner. It has not been tasty. I am lucky to report that I have not had to go to the clinic; however, my stomach has been bothering me and I’ve gone a few nights with sleep interrupted by having to go to the bathroom. In fact, I stayed home from work today because my stomach was so upset (and I did not want to linger too far from the bathroom).

On top of the seeming ‘epidemic’ on the ranch, we dealt with another emergency yesterday. Kris, the volunteer art therapist from Belgium, has not been feeling well for about two days now. She had been to the clinic twice, but all lab results came back normal. Yesterday around noon, her roommate Monica found her passed out in the room. She could not wake her up at all. The nurse, doctor, and a few other volunteers came to help. Still nothing. It had been about a half an hour and she was still lying on the floor unconscious. The doctors decided to take her to a private hospital in Tegucigalpa, Hospital San Jorge. They brought the ranch “ambulancia” to Casa Personal and carried Kris inside. Monica, Nora (the Honduran nurse), Annemarie, Gerardo (German doctor), and me were all going. Then Carl hopped into the driver’s seat. I don’t know what came over me, but I just felt that there were way too many people going. I felt helpless in the situation and that I was just taking up space. Why was Carl going? Just to drive? I offered to drive, seeing as how I had my Honduran driver’s license and I wanted to help out in some way. What was I thinking?! It was an in-the-moment decision. When I began pulling out of the ranch, it started to hit me...I have never driven a stick-shift, piece-of-crap ambulance before! Not to mention being responsible for all the passengers, driving on pothole filled Honduran roads, and having to drive through the congested, poorly designed city of Tegucigalpa in a busito/little bus. Shit!! Oh well, too late now.

Getting there was fine. Kris regained consciousness in the ambulancia. When we arrived to the hospital, we checked Kris in, they did some blood work and decided to keep her overnight for observation and to do some more tests. Monica stayed with her. It was actually a really nice hospital. Kris had a private room with a bathroom (hot water), air conditioning, cable TV, and a nice view. Not too shabby for a developing country. There was not much more the rest of us could do, so we headed back to the ranch -- with me in the driver’s seat.

I had to back the ambulancia out of a parking garage. I was a little nervous and under pressure, but backed out no problem. It wasn’t until we had to pull-out of the parking garage and into the street that the problems arose. The way I was coming out of the parking garage I was situated to turn left. The parking attendants came running out and let me know I couldn’t go left since it was a one way street. So, I had to back up to maneuver myself to be able to turn right. Pulling out was tough. The street was very narrow, there were cars parked all along both sides of the street, and the entry to the parking lot was a steep, sandy curb. Well, my first try out of the parking lot was unsuccessful. I had to do many three-point turns. This is where it got even harder. The ambulancia has no power steering; so for me to turn the wheel required all of my muscle strength. Annemarie and the parking lot attendant both had to reach over and help me turn the wheel each time. I was sweating! Then the parking attendant guy was trying to help me by yelling “dale, dale, dale”/go, go, go. It was stressing me out. So, after many muscled three-point turns, I found myself in an Austin Powers predicament – I could not go forward or backward. So, I eased, coasted, tapped, whatever you want to say into the parked truck in front of me. I then was able to push off the truck and was able to back out and get on the road. Just a friendly tap. When I backed off the truck (which was a typical Honduran truck – rusted, dented, chipped, missing windows, etc.) the parking attendant starting yelling at me and pointing at the truck asking what I was going to do about that. I didn’t see anything at all on the truck. I did not cause damage to that truck that wasn’t already there. So, I kept going. When I looked into the rearview mirror I saw the parking attendant noting the license plate number of our ambulancia. Great. Here I am trying to be a good volunteer and now this! God! I was a little freaked out as to what may happen. Not to mention on the way out of the city I stalled out going up a really steep hill – that was embarrassing.

Oh well. We made it back all in one piece. Kris’ lab work all came back normal, so she is returning to the ranch today. Still not sure what is wrong with her though. We’ll see what happens.

I hope the ranch never calls on me to be an EMT ever again (or I don’t open up my stupid mouth to volunteer).