Yellow Fever Part II

I had a bit of a skip in my step yesterday when the sun came up.  Some friends here invited me to go to Puyo to try out the only American-style coffee shop in the region and to make a pit stop in the SuperTia--Puyo's largest grocery store.  Since I've not had regular drip coffee from a coffee pot in weeks, I was more than eager for the day to begin.  I had even gone to bed on Monday night with some excitement rumbling in my stomach. 

So, I asked one of my very sweet neighbors to watch Selah for a couple of hours and I headed down the road to meet this engaging couple.  We waited less than a minute for the local shuttle bus to stop at our corner and we hopped on taking seats that were fairly close to the front.  Little by little, locals joined us filling every seat and almost every inch of floor space.  There were street vendors, people eating soup, moms with babies, school aged kids, grandparents; all of humanity (and even dogs) found the bus to Puyo. 

Forty full minutes, and about 20 stops later, we made it from the HVO stop (Hospital Vozandes Oriente) to the downtown Puyo stop--it's the very last place to disembark. If one were to take a car, it's actually only about six miles, but seeing that we have no car and the bus only costs a mere twenty-five cents, we don't mind waiting for the duration. 

My friends pointed out a number of places as we made our way to the café:  butcher, restaurant that serves great soup, plastics vendor, computer store, bakery, paper-goods store, place to buy knock-off Crocs for five dollars, fabric seller, etc.  We made a couple of quick purchases (bread, freshly boiled quail eggs, keychain) and then arrived at El Faraseo.  I glanced over the menu--expensive by Ecuadorian standards--but cheaper than Starbucks and asked for un cafe Americano.  A couple of minutes later I had my freshly purchased bread roll from the bakery and my six ounce cup of joe with milk and sugar, my two friends with whom to chat, and some great Ecuadorian worship music on the Ipod she brought.  If I closed my eyes, it almost felt like home with the smell of coffee in the air. 

However, after the cup ended (way too soon) and I'd had my quaint little breakfast, I could tell that the restroom would soon be needed.  A pit stop there and then it was off to the SuperTia.  Crowded as usual, Tia's had a few things on sale which I took advantage of (toothpaste and toothbrushes, a drying rack since my dishwasher doesn't work), and then I claimed my other items.  As always happens, I swoop through the three aisles of food items, look into my only quarter-full basket, and go down those same aisles again seeing if there's anything I missed.  I soooo long for shelves that have more than just the nine things I grabbed:  milk in a box, cheese slices, ham, yogurt in a bottle, chips, cookies, crackers, two kinds of juice, beans.  I've love a store with more options, more familiar items.  Even in Abu Dhabi where I lived over a decade ago the selection was four times as big as it is here.  I suppose that's the difference in small town living and living in a big city overseas. 

I paid my $35 and change, loaded my four recyclable bags (courtesy of Whole Foods) over my shoulders, and we trooped off to the bus stop once again.  We invested another forty minutes and twenty-five cents in the ride back, this time more heavy-laden and with my stomach fully churning. I began sweating profusely and nausea set in. My guess is that the milk in my coffee was the culprit; yet, it could have been anything--non-pasteurized milk, tap water used in the coffee instead of bottled, Yellow Fever shot from yesterday.....

Thankfully, by the end of the day, most of the yuckiness had subsided and I was able to throw together some dinner with relative ease--praise God for pasta!  Today I'm a bit better but as I type this I can still hear my stomach and intestines sorting out the issues.  I consider myself blessed though since I'm not the only one in the family who has had days like that (it's hit just about all of us at one time or another) so we all have empathy for the one who's out of sorts.  And, it's a short bout with something temporary.  Praise God it's not going to stay.  It could always be worse:  after a month of being itchy with the Typhoid shot--one very unpleasant side-effect--I'm not looking forward to the possible side-effects of the Yellow Fever shot which will reveal themselves in 3-8 more days. 

Till then, I'll be happy to have had a cup of coffee, picked up some much needed items, and spent the morning with some friends getting to know better the foreign land I now call home.  I hope your day brings adventure your way too......
Blessings, kim