Soft kitty, warm kitty

Being sick in a foreign country is never fun. After battling with Dengue ish fever symptoms for the first two weeks, I went to the doctor and discovered I had tonsillitis which made last week seem almost unbearable. It felt like I was swallowing knives even when I was simply drinking water, I didn't eat anything for four days, and my fever was so bad that I hardly moved out of bed from Sunday to Wednesday. But I still managed to experience unbelievable kindness and compassion from friends old and new, here in Dhaka and all the way on the other side of the world in Brandon.

Here in Dhaka, my friend whose family lives here, came to the hospital with me to get checked out as she speaks Bengali, but luckily the doctor spoke perfect English so that was helpful for me. (Side note; there are no such things as clinics, apparently you go straight to the hospital if you want to see a doctor). Anyways, she had her driver pick us up from the hospital and take me to her house so that her maids could take care of me while she went back to work at school. She gave them directions to bring me soup and tea and I had a little bell to ring in case I needed anything.

Next day I was back at my apartment and not being able to eat I was craving something to settle my stomach and soothe my throat. I told my friends of my craving for Ginger Ale, well, not so much told as pathetically whimpered that it was all I wanted in the world and then stumbled off to bed. Twenty minutes later I heard my fridge being opened and cans placed inside, next thing I knew my friend was quietly placing a can of Ginger Ale on my bedside table. I looked up and said, "You're the best!" to which he just smiled and said, "Feel better!"

I was ordered to three days of bed rest by the doctor but when the fourth day came I found a note on my door from my room mate telling me to stay in bed as I was in no shape to be at work and she had already informed the principal. We don't have substitutes, so when I'm not there, my colleagues have to use their prep time to cover my classes. All of them were more than willing to cover for me to make sure that I had time to recover fully. So after working extra hard on the fourth day, my room mate came home and still cooked me supper before taking a nap because she wanted to make sure that I ate, especially since I had told her that it was the first time I felt hungry that week.

On top of that I received numerous emails, text messages, songs, phone calls, and a FaceTime conversation which included a special little puppy who I imagine would have loved to cuddle up with me to make me feel better too. So I finally do feel better, and very well cared for, and with fall break coming up in two days, let the fun begin!