Sick Leave

Had I known what was to unfold in the coming week I would have said this was the worst day of the trip. I spent day 11 sick in bed with what I can only guess was a stomach bug more causally known as Delhi Belly. I wish I could say it was as comical as all the movie promotional posters and commercials we saw for the newly released film of the same name, but it wasn’t.

I had come prepared: three different antibiotics for stomach trouble, gallons of Pepto and enough sanitizer for all of India.  My mother doesn’t use ice so I’ve grown accustom to ice-less drinks and am a fan (I know, I know environmentally irresponsible) of bottled water. I thought I was covered. If I had to guess I’d blame careless hand sanitation after touching market fruit.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself.  I spent the majority of the day curled up in bed, wishing I had my mommy there to take care of me. Yes I’m aware that a 24 year old woman should no longer need mom but come on foreign country + sick=need to be coddled.

The most disappointing of the situation was not my excoriating pain and lack of energy/appetite but that I missed what most of my classmates decided was their favorite experience, Gandhi’s Ashram.  But I have wonderful friends in my classmates and they all came back to brief me on the days events and provided the literature and my own piece of spun cotton. This is my shout out to my awesome travel companions and friends who I couldn’t have asked for a better group for this trip.

Though it is hard to get a cultural experience while secluded to a room somehow I managed.  Situated on the 5^th floor of my hotel I stared out the window down at the chaotic mess of a living space, home to a number of people.  The physical proximity of our hotel to the small shack located next door was a perfect snap shot representation of India as a whole. India is coming up fast but in very different ways. There is no segregation in this country and there would be no way to segregate if so desired.  The richest of the rich are coexisting with the poorest of the poor and yet they are like a ying and yang. As we have learned through studies and this cultural emersion the two need each other to survive.