The past few days have proven to be the hardest since I arrived here. Before I left I figured I would struggle with culture shock and dealing with differences in daily life, or have a hard time adjusting to Amman, my roommates, or the Arab society. While those things were difficult, they thankfully managed to sort themselves out. But here I am, alone with a bout of homesickness, wishing so badly I could come home. Why? Because I got dreadfully sick... not as dramatic as you may have hoped for :) sorry.
I unfortunately came down with some type of flu virus that has been going around our program. Us Americans seem to not be immune to some things here in the Middle East. Kids in my program have been calling it "mummy tummy" claiming it was going around in Egypt, and others say they picked it up in Lebanon, but either way, it was awful and extremely unpleasant, and of course I caught it head on.
I hope I am stringing a chord with some of you (I'm sure others are kindly thinking I'm a HUGE baby) but there is nothing worse than being really sick when you are away from the comforts of your own home. I started feeling ill last Wed, my longest day of the week, I have class from 8 am until 5, which makes for an awfully long day when your feeling 100 percent. Anyways, Thursday I woke up a wreck, missing class here is pretty much a no no, so of course I went, then I had work, which thankfully was low key, but I literally was sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose every 30 seconds. Not to mention I felt like I had been run over by a Mack truck and my "mummy tummy" was not helping the situation.
Let me just paint a few picture for you.... you're really sick and all you want is a nice clean bathroom, some over the counter medicine, and a comfortable bed to rest in. Well, here in Amman the typical bathroom is basically a stall with a hole in the ground... the western toilet is not usually present in public places, so most people in my program avoid the bathroom unless it is a life or death situation. If you do decide to challenge the restroom, you have to bring your own toilet paper and stretch very well before hand, because your quads get a major workout. So please, if YOU think you've seen bad restrooms, go ahead and google a Pakistani style toilet, and then you'll understand. Bad is a total understatement. My next issue was finding some medicine that wasnt written fully in microscopic Arabic. I did bring a bunch of stuff from home, but little things that in America are easy to find (cough drops, vitamin C tablets, thermaflu) took me a LONG time to find over here. After venturing out alone, my roommate Lina had to accompany me to the phramacy so she could ask the person working where to find things (shes fluent in Arabic, thank GOD) I ended up finally finding some flu stuff, which is nothing like what's offered in America. Everything here just tastes alittle off, slightly different. I can't really explain it, but it's not quite the same. Now for the bed, your best friend during times of sickness.... well lets just say my bed here is not a "sleep number", it's not even on par with a college dorm bed. My bed here is typical, it's a small matress thats about 6 inches thick, no bedspring or anything else, it just rests on the wooden bedframe, which honestly looks like something an American 3 year old would sleep in. Boy, I know I'm complaining, but Western comforts have indeed spoiled me! Needless to say, my summer camp cot has provided me the experience to wake up and feel like a 70 year old woman, horribly sore and stiff.
With all that being said, my flu-like self became extremely homesick for American comforts and my Mom. All I wanted was someone to take care of me, but I was faced with the harsh reality of being an adult. An adult in a foreign country, wow let me say, being an Adult sucks. All my roommates went out for the weekend, shopping, dinner, bars... while I sat in our apartment, forcing fluids and attempting to make "sick" food for myself. It was miserable and I was so incredibly homesick. Mom, thank you so much for taking care of me when I was sick, I know I wasnt grateful at the time, but being sick here totally made me feel like a 4 year old again, all I wanted was you.
The only good part of my weekend at home was I made a new friend. Stray cats are all around Amman, and Thursday night a small, orange cat was crying outside our door. I got some old meat and water and fed her, she was really cute, and ate all our leftovers ( we didnt waste!!). I havent seen her since, but maybe she'll come back :) I know, it was probably a really bad idea, but it made me smile.
Today, I started to come out of the whole flu thing. Im beginning to feel semi-normal again. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be feeling better. Classes and work start up again tomorrow. The week schedule is busy, but classes and my internship are going well. All the activities make the time go fast. I'll post soon. Until next time, Ma'salaama!
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