I Hate P-Days-- Week 48

Ka oha nui from the Marquises, where the whole week was rather calm right up until, you guessed it, p-day.

Elder Davis has been sick with the dengue for this whole week, and it started out okay, but then went from bad to worse. He was feverish, had weird, sensitive skin, his hands and feet hurt, he had headaches and bodily aches, did not stop throwing up, and could not eat for five days, to name a few.

As a result, this took up most of the week.

We went to the doctor's and he said it was the dengue, and prescribed something we didn't recognize. Soeur Tama (the nurse that gave me breastmilk), said that what he prescribed was just a fancy version of Dolliprane (their equivalent of Ibuprofen). Thusly, she gave us something that was, again, Dolliprane, but this time with codeine. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the throwing up started after that. I don't think it was because of the pill, but still, I don't think it was very great for his body either. He even threw up after taking anti-vomitives. Staying hydrated is incredibly important with this disease, and he wasn't even able to drink that much in terms of fluids.

Saturday morning was my last chance to say goodbye to the Bonnos (they're going on a trip and will not be back until the date of the next transfer, August 1st (when I will probably leave). (Better safe than sorry!), so I dragged him to the docks to do that. Made him throw up. And then, due to my innability to say no to people, we chilled at Coco's house all that day. He got to sleep and rest, but even so, I felt like such a jerk.

Because of this, I wanted him to have an actual, full day of rest, which is what Sunday comprised of, but in there we also had another throwing up episode, no Powerade at the store, and a bunch of crazy red dots showing up on his skin. At this point, it was pretty bad, so we decided we needed to go do the doctor's again.

And thus dawned that fateful day. That fateful p-day.

I was in no hurry to try and drag Davis to the chapel for selfish reasons, as that was what most of Saturday was, and we were trying to take him to the hospital anyways, and we had no way of getting to the chapel (that guy couldn't walk). Thusly a bit of the day passed. When Davis awoke, he said he was feeling better (erroneously), and we decided against going to the hospital, as it is expensive because our missionary insurance cards do not work out here. Also he just didn't want to go. This established, we called our boy Manutea to come get us and take us to the chapel (at this point, much later in the day). Elder Davis went first (obviously), but then Manutea peaced out to go grab his wife. Davis finished right around this time. And here comes the danger sign - I sit down, write a letter to President Bize, and then what happens?

Well of course, a random dog runs up and steals my shoe. I jump out the chapel window, yell at the dog, and grab my fallen shoe. And it starts to rain.

Bad. Omen.

I sit back down to do my emails, I read two emails (one of them a very large one involving a bit of shocking news). This errand of mercy done, we get a call. And thus it was, that we, the missionaries, were superheroes to the rescue, once again. Somebody needed a blessing. I was glad we had the opportunity to serve, but Irony being the wiley lady that she is, had it fall on a p-day. Elder Davis was doing really badly at this point, but we went anyways. We get there to do the blessing, and all during it, Elder Davis is not doing too well. The second we hit amen, he runs outside and throws up again and again for the sixth and seventh time this week. On a week of no food! Just because he had been standing for too long.

At this point, the priority was getting that dude home and rested. Because, don't worry, the doctor was gone for the day. It was there we decided that this was truly a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. Our minds made up, we were going to the hospital first thing in the morning.

But could you guess what happened next?

He wakes up this morning (Tuesday, July 19, 2016) saying he feels lots better. Randomly reassuring, but we still didn't want to take the chance. We get there, wait for hours, get checked out by a nurse first, we have all the symptoms and more of what comes after the dengue (this crazy infection), we wait some more hours, we go in to see the doctor, and she decides to stick an IV in him and do a blood test. More hours pass, chilling with sugar and water running into his veins. We finally get done with the blood test, and they still don't know what it is for sure. But she tells us that it's fifty-fifty. If he felt like he could go home, he could, but if it gets worse, we gotta come back, so he could stay if he wanted to. We were out of there like people that leave a hospital.

And finally, after all this, I finally got the chance to write this email. But don't worry I forgot my camera and have no pictures of the crazy festivities that went down on July 14th (French Independence Day). I will be sending those next time, but for right now, you guys get this photo.

20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ... Wherefore, if ye shall press forward... and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

Sincerely,

Tumu Hakako Harrah

Note from Ty's mom:

In case you missed this last week, I thought I'd include the link again.  I added it kind of late last time.  He wrote:

Here's a link to an example of the bird dance (ours is too big to send, I think)

This dude at 3:52 inspired my dance a little bit. Everybody's bird dance is unique, and is modeled after a real bird, but I didn't get to study a real bird, just this guy.