This journal entry was written four years ago and never posted. It provides a glimpse into the things that happened and the way I was thinking about them at the time. I had been incredibly grateful that I never came down with cholera myself during all the time I was caring for the babies in the hospital in Port au Prince.
However, after I got back from Port, I spent about half a day scrubbing the floor inch by inch in one of the rooms at Club Indigo because two American guys were coming down and were going to stay there. The room had previously been lined with babies' cribs, and the floor was caked with grime and crud, but I joyfully took a rag and bucket and washed it down, scrubbing on my hands and knees, excited about the guys who were coming and utterly unconcerned about investing some hard work into giving them a clean place to stay. (Club Indigo had a cleaning staff who would come through with a mop once a day, but they just did a quick pass over the room, and this room definitely needed deep cleaning.) I remember getting extremely sweaty due to the amount of elbow grease I had to exert, and I emerged from the room disheveled with my hair a mess.
Only after I finished scrubbing the room was I told that babies with cholera had been kept in that room while I was at Port. I hadn't worn gloves or taken any special precautions while I scrubbed the floor. I'm sure that some of that grime and crud was cholera-infested feces. And that's how I think I came down with cholera after being fine the whole time up to that point.
February 4, 2013
Ever since I got back to Haiti, I have been
trying to have a girls’ night with the missionary ladies. I brought summer sausage and three kinds of
specialty Wisconsin cheese that I had gotten in the US, and I wanted to have the ladies over for
fellowship, prayer, and snacks. Monday I was at the creche as usual, but it seemed
like nothing was going on that night. Ah!
My girls’ night! I thought. So I called and texted people and set it up.
About 6:00 in the evening, I happily set to work making some homemade chai tea. About 6:30, I went to pick up one of the ladies from her house. (First time
driving at night in Haiti!) Suddenly, as soon as I walked in the door to my
room, I felt nauseous. It was only slight, and I pushed it out of my mind. I
continued making the chai and cutting the cheese and summer sausage. Two more ladies came about 8:00, and I served everyone chai.
Then I had to go to the bathroom. It was diarrhea. I took my
temperature. 99.3. I was sure I was in for it. I told the girls that maybe they
should all go home, because I just had diarrhea and I told them what my
temperature was. They decided to stay, and we did have a lovely time talking,
though I was curled up in a fetal position on the bed, huddled under a blanket and
feeling worse all the time. We had a prayer time together, lifting up each
other’s needs, and that was also very wonderful.
The ladies left, and I took my temperature again. It was
101.5. “Oh, no!” I thought. I went to bed, where I thrashed and moaned all
night long, getting up frequently to go to the bathroom, and having weird,
feverish, delusional sensations. I remember at one point feeling like I had
four bodies, and trying to decide which one of them I would send to the
bathroom. Nobody wanted to go. Finally desperate urges caused one of them to take the initiative, and I was surprised that all of me went along.
The signs of
cholera are liquid diarrhea and vomiting, with a distinctive, almost lime-green
color, a distinctive smell, and a texture sometimes like rice. I was sure I had it.
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Read the next post: I Get Cholera, Day 2
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Read the next post: I Get Cholera, Day 2
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