To Hell & Back Again

I just spent the last 12 hours puking my brains out. The heaves were so bad that I thought my eyes were going to pop out of their sockets, and though I managed to keep them on, tears were leaking out of them and staining my glasses, not because I was crying, but from the sheer pressure of the heaving and vomiting. At one point, I tried to take one of those Cipro pills that the nurse had prescribed to me before I left for Iraq, but my body rejected it, and it only made my vomit taste all medicinal. Honestly, I wanted to die, or at least pass out from the lack of air or something, but unfortunately neither happened, and I had to be conscious during the worst case of food poisoning I've ever experienced. 

After the vomiting phase passed, the cramps came, and I actually gagged myself a few times in order to throw up whatever was hurting me so badly inside. My god. When I emerged from this torture session and looked around my apartment, I saw before me a battlefield of barfbags on my kitchen counter, in my bedroom, on my living room chairs and in the bathroom. At one point when I was barfing in the bathroom, I felt fluid dripping onto my feet. I looked down and realized that the toilet paper packaging I was using as a barfbag had a hole on the bottom, and vomit was spilling all over the bathroom floor. This was the first time I was glad that the shower was built to flood the bathroom floor because I could just take the showerhead and spray the vomit down the floor drain. It was the highlight of the night. 

Later, when the worst had passed, I crawled to the kitchen to make myself some cardamom tea, and as I sat at the counter forcing small spoonfuls of the hot, bitter liquid into my mouth, suddenly I really did start to cry. I'm not sure why. I guess the prolonged physical pain took a toll on my emotions. All I wanted at that moment was a lap to lay my head on and a motherly hand stroking my head and holding and babying me. 

Yesterday evening, two of my hallmates and I had decided to have a spontaneous group dinner for us and some other teachers. We didn't think it through at all, and the cooking was quite chaotic, with water from the boiling pasta spilling out all over the (flat-topped) stove and onto the kitchen floor, the lack of ingredients, and such. But the food turned out really really delicious, and we all sat stuffed and content on the balcony, the night before another hard week of teaching was to begin. Afterward, I had the first real workout since I've arrived in the small, un-air conditioned gym adjacent to the apartment complex, and afterward, I played soccer with V and the security guards, and N and I had an interesting conversation about the moon. 

Going over the events of yesterday evening, I realize it was not just the food poisoning, but probably severe dehydration that led to this horrible uncontrollable puking. When the AQC (upper management person) stopped by too see if I was all right and to discuss a schedule change, I was super super super relieved to find out that I was the only one who missed school today due to food poisoning. If my cooking had brought this upon my other colleagues, I would have felt mortally sorry. 

As for the schedule change, one of my periods with the kindergardeners has been replaced with a 4th grade computer class, where we will be playing with Kidpix. I used to use Kidpix back in my grade school years! I'm sure it has evolved a lot though since my elementary school days.