Well, this was a very interesting day in Hotel Sahara. On a personal note, it started in Room Dos-Dos-Dos at 1am. I woke up with the aches and chills, headache, nausea, Jane not far behind me. It was a sleepless night, even after ibuprofen, Pepto, Dramamine, Cipro. At 6am, there was a knock on the door, and Paul told me we had another man down. In the next hour, there was word of 14 of our 27 people sick, all with pretty much the same symptoms. I made rounds on some folks, offered some pills and advice of rest and hydration, and made my way back to bed. It should also be noted that they were working on the roof all day long. At noon there was word that one of our women came back from the worksite- her symptoms were delayed. This was not good- total now at 15. All of our medical personnel were down- this was not good.
Luis Fernando, our Habitat liaison, contacted the office to let them know the situation. They have never seen anything like this. They had a doctor come to assess all of us, and her guess, as was ours, that this was some sort of food poisoning. We cannot figure out the common denominator. Now it was just on to manage the symptoms.
We were spoiled a little today. There were deliveries of Gatorade, soup, toast and fruit. We had our first doctor house-call. I think most of us are on the mend, with hopes to return to the worksite tomorrow.
In my brief communication from those who went today, the day at the worksite was productive, despite the small number of volunteers. Unlike Saturday, with lots of volunteer teams, the rest of the week will just be our 3 volunteer teams of 27. I'm sure the masons wondered where we all were today. And I'm sure there were many prayers said for our speedy recovery. I think the prayers worked- Jane and I are back to drinking our Coca-Cola lights.
You'll see only one picture from today. It sums up the feeling around the hotel.
Hasta manana.
Amazing! We are continuing to pray.
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