Honduras: The Virus

I'd be remiss if I didn't find time to talk about the one souvenir we all hoped we'd left in Central America. The virus of a lifetime, as a fellow traveler called it. With less than 3 days left on our trip, we started dropping like flies. At first, it started with one, who was hooked to and IV and we assumed it was a simple case of dehydration. But when we started having 2-3 more laying around on the couches and rushing for the bathrooms, we knew we were in trouble.

What we didn't know was that "new guy" who joined our group from the outskirts of the country, had been sick when he joined us. He didn't bother to tell us that he was spending 2-3 hours a day hovering in the bathroom. And we found out the hard way.

What really sucked was that with all the flushing of toilets, we ran ourselves completely out of water. So imagine yourself trapped in a living space the size of most living rooms, with people running to the bathroom every few minutes, you can't flush the toilets, and as always, the toilet paper goes in a trash can, not in the toilet. Yes, it was as fun as it sounds.

Thankfully, I wasn't hit as badly as some others. The others have had intestinal problems out both ends, as well as other flu-like feelings. My symptoms consist of lightheadedness, dizzyness, confusion, hot flashes, and a fever. And I use the present tense because I'm still suffering. Mostly I feel like someone beat me with a baseball bat and left me in the middle of the woods. I'm only up for about 4 hours at a time, and those days where I push past that, the next day I find myself sleeping 12-14 hours at night, and unable to even remember where I was supposed to be or what I was to be doing.

And as far as I know, we're all still suffering. I of course can't go to the doctor and ask him to test me for things, since student insurance never covers that type of thing. But one other person has went, and they eliminated most things and told her it's probably a virus that we'll all just have to wait out. Let's just hope I outlive this thing.