~Long overdue--some memorable experiences~

I’ve been such a slacker! I apologize that it has been almost a month since my last update. Some monumental experiences have occurred and I will do my best to fill you in on things…
The first and most exciting thing I want to share is about something I did this past weekend. Saturday was the best, most amazing day that I’ve had since arriving here! It was an Island Wide annual beach clean-up day and I went with some girls from my history class who were doing the clean-up with their teammates from the University’s softball team. I was debating whether or not I should even go, because we had to leave the college at 7:15 in the morning! But I dragged myself out of bed by 10 after six and made it on time. We drove south a ways to Cabo Rojo, and a beach called Joyuda. We met with a bunch of other students from El Colegio and then divided into groups to go to different areas of the beach. The group that I went with ended up going to a small Island just off the coast called Isla Ratones, or Rat’s Island. We then went to a Snorkeling and Scuba Diving tourist business a little ways away to meet the owners who were donating there boat and snorkel gear for us, the cleaners! They were so friendly and gave us instructions and ideas of what to look for. We were divided into groups. There was a need for two ‘water groups,’ each group consisting of a kayaker and two snorkelers. The snorkelers job was to retrieve the garbage and bring it to the kayaker, who had a bag and a paper to document the items that had been found. The ‘land group’ got to comb the beach and island—it’s very small—I don’t think you’d even fit a football field with fan stands on it. I perked up at the mentioning of being a snorkeler and was able to have my first choice! It was so incredible!! There was plenty of coral reef and tropical fish to take in—wow! I had never really been snorkeling before, well, maybe in a pool or something. But I absolutely loved it. The water was really clear and it was just like a whole different world down there. The water around the little Rat’s Island wasn’t very deep so I felt pretty safe. My biggest concerns were struggling to find trash (which was the reason I was doing this) and being careful not to touch/bump/kick the coral on accident. It was hard to find the trash because some of it had been there so long that the organisms had adapted and started growing on it, so it was disguised. Also, sometimes there would only be a small section of a glass bottle or piece of piping sticking out. We found a decent amount of debris…mostly pop-can tabs and glass. It didn’t take us more than an hour and a half for our two water groups and one land group to complete the annual comb. By the time we got back to the main Island it was a little after 11am. There were sandwiches and apples waiting for us on shore. After some closing words, a group photo and some ‘thank yous’ we loaded back into our cars and I thought we were headed back to Mayaguez. Instead we stopped by to talk to some of the other girls from the softball team and learned that we’d been invited to someone’s house, who lived nearby. I couldn’t quite understand whose house it was; I think it was the softball coach’s. The Puerto Ricans really do talk fast…especially when they’re excited.
We got there and there were kayaks and when I looked in the back yard, there was a small opening leading into what looked like a tangled mess of thick, dried viney bushes with a river, or some form of water going through it. It turned out to be a mangrove marsh. The thick, dried, viney bushes and trees are the actual ‘mangrove’ and they grow in marshy, coastal areas in tropical climates. We hopped in the kayaks and took off through the maze of the mangroves. The path through them was narrow, and it was a little challenging trying to maneuver through, especially since in some spots the oar was longer than the width of the passageway. It smelled like a marsh and there were a lot of mosquitoes, but, it was beautiful and I really enjoyed kayaking! At the end of the maze there was a clearing; the mangroves had ended and now it was more like a bay of calm water. I could smell (and eventually taste on my lips) that it was saltwater. We went out to the middle and rested as a group and then pretty soon I was being told that we were waiting for a small plane to come and take our picture. Sure enough, about five minutes later we could hear a plane. It came, we waved and hollered and smiled and then when it flew back from where it had come, we headed back to the opening in the mangroves to wrestle our way back through the narrow turns and mosquitoes.
It was such an amazing day filled with outdoor activities, done best in a tropical paradise. Not to mention, the people I met were absolutely amazing and so friendly.
Oh, and I got a free t-shirt for doing the beach clean-up!
Another pretty significant experience has occurred since the last blog. This one, however, wasn’t so pleasant. Last week on Monday night I started having stomach problems. I’ll spare you the details, but lets just say I was pretty miserable while my body was trying to get rid of whatever was causing the upset…and not by vomiting. By about midnight things had only gotten worse and I was worried. I talked to my roommates, they did some googling online and we decided it’d be best to go to the Emergency Room; better safe than sorry. So, at around 1am we borrowed the car of one of our neighbors and headed to a hospital downtown that our Puerto Rican roommate recommended. We got to that hospital and walked into the emergency room. There was not a receptionist. No official worker there to take your information and hear your complaints. Instead there was a small stand with a guest book on it along with a machine that resembles those coupon spitters that you find in Cub Foods. The sign hanging nearby gave the simple instructions: sign your name, the date and the time and take a number from the coupon spitting machine and wait until your number is announced. I wrote down my name and took the number—96. There were at least 5 people sitting in the room…number 95 had signed in a good forty five minutes before me. Some Emergency room…it looked like it was going to be a long night. We knew there was another hospital in the area, in fact about two blocks away, so one of my roommates went to check out if they had an ER and what it was like there. She came back and said, “Lets go, Chels.” We went to the other hospital and instead of a coupon spitter and guest book, there was a receptionist and a computer. I filled out my basic information on the computer and soon a nurse in scrubs called me in a room to take my vitals and hear my reason for being there. From there we had to talk to the receptionist and get things straight about insurance. After a short wait I was called back through the double doors. What I saw was…scary. I was following a different man in scrubs. We walked by plenty of beds with people hooked up to IVs, looking and sounding miserable. We went to a small room in the back that had a desk, a few chairs and the usual examining bed/table thing. He told me to have a sit, didn’t identify himself and didn’t close the door. The woman in the bed outside and across the little hall, as well as the young man that I assumed was her son, could see and hear everything going on and they weren’t shy about staring at the blonde girl who spoke choppy Spanish. The man asked me my name, my birth date and why I was here. I explained the stomach issue and how my night had been going so far. He asked if I had allergies and wrote my answers down on some papers. He took a stethoscope and listened to my heart and then listened a bit on my stomach. He made some more notes and then got up, left the room and brought the papers to the nurse’s station. He told me to come and wait by the nurse’s station. There was another man, who was obviously in a lot of pain also waiting. There were no chairs. It was so awkward for me because I could see patients in their beds—it was not private at all. Yeah, there were some curtains hanging up, but they weren’t put up with privacy in mind. After about five minutes I grew tired of standing and was uncomfortable. I asked a nurse if I could go back out and wait in the reception area. She told me to go back down by the room that I had just been in a sit in a chair that was there. I walked back there, trying to keep my head down and eyes on the floor. I just couldn’t get over how open and exposed everything was. Unfortunately, the chair that I’d been directed to was outside of a bathroom and about 20 minutes and three patients coming out of the restroom with their urine samples later, I’d had enough. I walked out to the reception area and told my roommates I was ready to go. I would wait ‘til the morning and go to the student medical center on campus. I couldn’t handle the sights and smells of it back there, plus, I’d been waiting for what felt like forever and I didn’t even know what I was waiting for. I thought I was still waiting to see a doctor. I talked to the receptionist and told her I was leaving. She told me to wait and went back through the double doors. When she came back there was a nurse with her. They told me if I was going to leave I’d have to sign a statement. I went back with the nurse to the station and just broke down. I was so confused! And so scared to be in this strange hospital—so different from what we know in the U.S. Nobody had really told me what was going on. She started speaking to me in choppy English and finally filled in some blanks. The man that had listened to my heart and stuff was the doctor. He had ordered that I get an IV to be re-hydrated and given some antibiotics. She was like, look, it won’t take long and its going to help you feel better. I just wanted to feel better and not have to worry about it anymore, so I followed her back to bed #15 in the corner. She hooked me up to the IV and by 4am we were back home. I slept pretty much the whole day on Tuesday. I pushed fluids. My stomach was still gurgling, but it seemed that the antibiotics were helping, as the number of trips to the bathroom greatly reduced from those of the night before.
I didn’t really get a clear explanation of what was going on or what the doctor thought was wrong. They didn’t run tests or take blood or ask what I’d ate or anything, but the antibiotics worked. I do know that we’re lucky to have the hospitals and protocol and laws about privacy that we have. Hopefully, I wont have to deal with that again.
Other challenges have been with the weather. Thankfully all of the hurricanes have passed us so far. We have had some pretty crazy thunderstorms and rainfalls as they pass us by though. Ike especially gave us heavy rain, amazing lightning and booming thunder. As a result of heavy rains our water pressure weakens, and once even shut off completely. Our whole city was without water for about four hours or so, which was a weird and quite scary feeling. Unfortunately, when the water pressure weakens a lot of times it causes problems at the University with the plumbing and more than once I’ve found the campus bathroom doors locked when I’ve wanted to use them.
Currently we’re just getting over a Tropical Depression and it has been quite gloomy here with all of the wind and rain. We’re lucky though, our area hasn’t been hit nearly as hard as some on the Island have been the past two days. Areas in the mountains have experienced mudslides and there’s been some serious flooding in the south. We do have the occasional street that is flooded, but it could be a lot worse. We didn’t have classes yesterday due to heavy rainfall. I suspect many professors were having trouble driving to campus and the plumbing probably wasn’t working. Today was rainy as well and there were no classes, but it was a scheduled off day in honor of a Puerto Rican holiday, Grito de Lares (Shout of Lares)—an armed Independence movement that occurred on Sept 23, 1868 in attempt for Puerto Rico to gain freedom from the Spanish. The Puerto Ricans were able to take over the city of Lares on that day, but their conquering was short lived. The day is still honored and there is a small celebration in the city with plenty of crafts, music, dance and food.
Other than snorkeling, taking a tour of the ER and experiencing Island weather, I’ve been busy with school work. It has picked up significantly since Labor Day. I’m okay with it though because I actually am learning quite a bit---and double time. I’m learning more and more Spanish and interesting bits of history, art and volleyball. To add to it, I’ve started helping out at the on-campus pre-school that has 41 kids. They’re pretty fun to talk to and play with.
Oh, I almost forgot! I got my History test back about a week ago--I got an 'A.' Seems all of that studying paid off---or he was just really sympathetic. I took a test in Art History almost two weeks ago, but still haven't seen the results. The next two weeks I have four tests!
Thanks for reading, and I apologize again for taking so long to update. I will do better!
I hope all is well back in the States.
Take Care