Sunburn, Scrapes and a trip back to the clinic.

After Rachel’s terrifying experience on Saturday, we were all worrying about what was to come for us. Pineapple (a khmer volunteer who speaks great English), told us that taking pictures in a Pagoda was disrespectful to Buddha. However, this was all told to us after we had taken the pictures. As much as this was speculation (as there are no rules about photos in the pagoda), the girls all knew they were next... and we were right!

On Sunday, we had our out of community social, which we decided was going to be sports day with Grace’s team - it seemed like a good idea at first.

Sunburn is quite a silly subject, although Will’s burns seemed to get worse and worse, even though he had spent around an hour in the cloudy skies. He spent the whole afternoon with ice and air con on it.

Now, this is just the start for both of our unlucky streaks. I decided, as a team player, to have a go at playing football “Team Srae Thmei”! Not even 5 minutes in, it was my time to shine- the ball was coming my way! So, I ran. I remember thinking ”wow, I’m actually a fast runner“ in the seconds before my body hit the floor. This has happened before to me, I get so excited, that my legs out run my body and sends me flying across the field. I believe, if this were in England, I would’ve been fine. But some “smart-ass” decided to put Astro turf in a 40 degree country which was so hot that it melted the bottoms of Ed’s shoes! Once my arm had made contact with the bubbling Astro turf, it was game over and we were picking melted bits out of the wound. All is good now (this picture is after 3 days of healing) and it has finally stopped stinging, although I still can’t lean on it!

What more to distract you with than a picture of me with a needle in my ass??

We ended back at the clinic today, just over a week since we last went. The parasites have gone- thank the lord - but I was still getting waves of sickness. Will has been in quite a bad state every day, so he was due to go to the clinic sometime soon, and I felt well enough to say I didn’t need to go.

This all changed last night.

I mean, to be really frank, I’m sick of being a 19 year old girl who has no control of her bowels and has pooed herself twice now... not once... but twice in 3 weeks! I woke up around 4.30am with insane stomach cramps, which then led to accident number #2. But I didn’t stop there, I was on the toilet for a solid (or not so solid if you know what I mean) hour! I was losing precious sleep and feeling like crap, AGAIN. I hope you appreciated the honesty in that little bit.

It was all too much, when I finally got back to sleep, I woke up weak and fragile. Making my way to work for 8am, I knew that I wouldn’t make it the day; I didn’t even last the hour. The decision was made, I was heading back to the clinic.

5 new medications and a needle in my butt later, I might just get better... but who knows anymore. Will, Charlotte and I were all in the same situation but at different stages, we’re really honest and open about our poo here (except Charlotte) as it’s the best way to be (sorry Charlotte). Mine last night was black, and Wills was yellow (sorry Will). Therefore, along with a course of antibiotics , I was given lots of medication including something to repair everything that’s been damaged in my stomach. As much as I went through everyone’s medication with my big nose, I can’t tell you what the others were trying to fix. The doctor was assured that this will make us better, and if not, we will go on a drip and go back to the clinic.

The needle was (through translation) a muscle relaxant and another antibiotic, which I can assure you, was not relaxing - and I love having medical needles in me e.g blood tests. To add to it, Hannah kept making me laugh and everytime I did, my butt jiggled and the needle did too, which killed. I could feel the liquid going through me and, I have to say, I wasn’t loving it.

All Is well that ends well though as Chender (Project leader of VSO Cambodia) let us stay out of community to get our first real pizza!

I’ve had 10 different medications over 1.5 weeks and I’m honestly over being sick.