Sometimes, Cultural Immersion is Painful

What a week! It seems like no matter how normal you think everything will be the next seven days, it always seems to turn out differently. That’s not always bad, just different. This past week, it’s been difficult going to some of our locations to minister for a number of reasons. One of those locations is simply not safe for Americans to go to right now, so we’re keeping our distance. Also, because Summer for the schools starts in April with graduations happening in March, a lot of the schools are doing final testing and prep work for the ceremonies. That being said, classes being spontaneously cancelled are not unusual. Simply put, Kim and I had a lot of time at the house where we can work on studying or preparing for a later ministry. That, however, is not the most exciting part of our past week. Around 9 PM last Thursday, I started to feel a bit of pain on the right side of my abdomen. At first I thought it was just gas from eating some of our oatmeal cookies or from drinking coffee, but an hour later, the pain intensified and it was really difficult for me to move without causing more pain. I started worrying a bit because one of my friends back home had Appendicitis not too long ago, so I had Kim go to the Internet Café and check out the symptoms for it. Sure enough, my symptoms were quite similar to what they described on the Net. Kim asked Noel where the closest hospital was, and thankfully, the owner of the house was gracious enough to drive me there, along with the rest of the team. They were really supportive and ready to help where they could. When we arrived at the Emergency Room about a half-hour later, the doctor soon began doing simple tests in order to try to figure out if my Appendix needed to be removed. Thankfully, they all turned out negative, but the pain was still getting worse. I described to him how the pain came in waves, and he stated that it, most likely, was my intestines spazzing out. They threw an IV on me and gave me some pain reliever as well as anti-spasm medicine. Oh yeah, the whole vomiting thing was gross too. That was only the second time in my life that I’ve vomited, the first being when I was about five years old. Anyway, with that out of the way, they said that I should be admitted just to make sure that the pain doesn’t develop. It was really great to see a lot of people from our team there to help me. Both Filipino and American teammates came to make sure I was doing okay. It was really neat for me to see that even though we’ve only been here for two months, our friendships were deeper that I thought they’d be. After I was wheeled into my room, most of everyone left except Kimmy. I was really hoping that she would stay with me, and she said “Ah babe, don’t worry. I’ll be right here!” She’s the best. We both slept decently, at least as well as you can in a hospital. The next morning, almost all of my pain was gone as well as the nauseous feeling I had. A number of Filipino nurses came in to check on my condition, though Kim and I could definitely tell that they just wanted to see what an American looked like! One girl even opened the door, poked her head inside, gasped, and quickly shut the door. Kim and I were laughing pretty hard! The doctor soon came in and told me just to be careful of what I eat and make sure that I don’t drink the tap water. Though I have been careful about both of those, I’ll just have to be extra cautious about the way my stomach feels. All in all, the whole hospital visit was about 5,000 pesos. That includes the room, the professional fee, the ultrasound, the lab tests, the pharmacy tests, as well as the take-home medicine. In American dollars, that’s about $120. Yeah, I love the hospital costs here!! I’m feeling fine here as I type this to everyone who is reading, but keep me in your prayers that this doesn’t come back. I won’t be going to help the team today or tomorrow as I want to make sure that everything down there is quieted and settled down. Something tells me that riding on the motorcycle up a rocky mountain path is not the best idea after an intestinal problem. I’m really thankful that everything worked out. God has us in His hands.