Reflections and Antibiotics

This past week has been a bumpy one for me. In Samoa it seems that you are constantly running on adrenaline, thriving on little sleep, bad food, and a constant language barrier. In normal life you would be expecting the onset of some various virus but not in Samoa! We landed in NZ, celebrated the cold weather and quickly settled into the routine. But that is when your body gets you! It’s tricky-staying strong in high stress situations but crumbling once it knows it’s in a safe environment. Anyway, enough of the ideological and back to the reality. I had started to feel ill the second to last night in Samoa. When I got back my mild stomach pain and nausea turned into stomach pain so intense I couldn’t breathe well. So it was off to the hospital in Kaikoura. A diagnosis of mega-super-ultra acid reflux (that’s the official name, just kidding), a prescription, and a couple hundred dollars later, I was back in the convent feeling mildly better. I awoke the next morning to discover that my lip was swollen, painful, and oozing just a small amount of pus. It was back on my bike and off to the hospital once again. Lo and behold, I have a staph infection on my lip. Another couple hundred dollars and a dose of penicillin and I am on my merry way.

But the good news is that the week was actually pretty awesome. I went for a few good runs (slowly, as to avoid making myself sicker) learned to play rugby, practiced rugby, and planned some pretty sick trips (details to come). This week also marked the second week of sustainable community development. The focus of this week was on the practical application of caring for the impoverished. Mick recognized that most people will not go into mission work and so we discussed the ways in which to care for the emotionally and spiritually impoverished.

I’m pretty sure that God is super crafty, because he tied in my “illnesses” with this week of class seamlessly. After Mick’s first class and my trip to Samoa I doubted whether I was capable of caring for the poor in the way we had discussed. Those of you who know me well, or just know me at all, know that interpersonal skills are not exactly my strong points nor is patients. The combo of this week’s practical application and my ecstasy over taking modern medicine pointed me more firmly back to the path I have already started to build. I think what I finally realized is that since I am not an ordinary person, I will not live an ordinary life. I can still be pretty darn radical even if I get my PhD and work in a lab. I can still get married, buy a house, drive a car, and run recreationally and be a follower of Jesus. I still don’t know where I’m going, but I plan to go where I am most needed.

Things I learned (apart from the above paragraph):
1. I really do think antibiotics are incredible.
2. I miss and love my family and friends so much. But I can’t live for my family.
3. How you behave at your lowest shows who you really are.
4. No matter where you go, there will always be stress. Life isn’t about eliminating stress, but learning how to deal with it. (or maybe see things as not stressful?)
5. Doodling in class is still ridiculously fun.

*PS. For more stories about my semester check out www.ccspsouthpacificfall2010.blogspot.com
*PPS. I apologize to every geography teacher I ever had. I do know that Africa is a continent ☺