Like Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls," perhaps the cause of my cold is separation from my sweetheart.

I forget whether it was Tuesday or Wednesday when it began, but I have really been missing Erin and thinking about her all the time. It is hard to be so far away from my life-long partner and not be able to see her beautiful face. I read her post about straightening her hair, and I sure wish I could have been there to see it.

Tuesday night, but JJ and I came down with a stomach sickness, but I waited until the morning to start taking our Cipro. That same night, I developed a chest cold.

It was rather stressful packing for this trip, because I was swamped with work and because I was worried about not packing some necessity. Unlike most travels, you cannot just run to the store when you realize you forgot something. Of course, a cold is the last thing I expected down here, so neither I nor anyone else had anything I could take.

Wednesday morning, I was feeling well enough to go to the worksite, but JJ was vomiting, so he stayed in the room until lunchtime. I felt good all morning, and JJ felt better at lunchtime, so I made him come with us for the afternoon. He continued to get better yesterday, until he had plenty of energy by evening, but right after lunch I started feeling worse.  By evening, my cold had progressed into both a chest and head cold, and with nothing to take, of course it was a very long night. My stomach was not terrible, but my cold was. Finally I fell completely asleep around 4am, but when my alarm went off at 6am my stomach problem developed into naseua and required frequent bathroom trips. So I have let JJ go off today without me, while I stay in the room.

While the last two days have been workdays (yesterday I laid cement block as we built the house for the single mother ... I had seen it done when our porch in PB was built, and it was fairly easy to pick up), today is a rest and tourism day. This morning they are visiting the city dump, where very poor people live and make a living (I assume by picking through garbage for things to sell). In late morning, they will pick up lunch on the way and drive about an hour to San Marcos (?) where there is shopping and horseback riding. They will call before they head in that direction, in case I am feeling better, but I am told that the drive there is windy and no fun if you are sick.

Yesterday afternoon we visited with two women from the church who have HIV from their husbands. The first one was kicked out of her family, and now she lives in a new home and tries to keep the secret that she and two of her three kids have from her neighbors. The church asked her to lead a weekly HIV support group in her home, and that has been going well. Her ex- husband is still alive, and has gotten saved and is involved at the same church, but they are still separated. The second woman likewise was disowned by her family, and when her husband was diagnosed with AIDS, she nursed him back to health for weeks, only to have him commit suicide a few days after returning home from the hospital. She slept with another guy once and got pregnant, and her mother and sister (who did not even want to touch her or her children), did not like the new guy and schemed to separate the two, and so strangely  the sister seduced the guy (even though obviously sleeping with someone who has had sex with an HIV victim is worlds risker than touching infected kids). She is being evicted because the landlord wants to sell a large block of land, so tomorrow we are breaking ground on a house for her too.

I do not know why God has allowed me to have so many health problems this week. My ankle has been quite bad, although thank the Lord not as bad as when I had the same problem two years ago, and my tailbone of course still bothers me, and now these sicknesses. One effect is that I really have not gotten very emotionally connected with most team members nor the people we are helping ...  I am too busy worrying about how to get through the next part of the day with a sore ankle and sickness, and I spend a lot of time in my room. Last night when I could not sleep, I kept thinking about how to apply what I have learned here, regarding how the church can assist with economic development and share the gospel at the same time, to the Mio area. So perhaps that is what God has in mind, learn from this, but other than continuing to donate money to this cause, save my attention for Mio.

JJ has said that although he likes the people on this team, he has not been having as much fun as our trip to New Orleans. I agree ... I think that is because we are doing much more tourist-like activities (by learning all about the problems and ministries) and less physical labor. Also, this group is almost three times as large, so you spend less time with any one person ... and we all have double rooms rather than all the guys bunking together. But JJ says that it is because the extreme poverty and injustice here really bothers him, whereas in New Orleans folks were poor and living in conditions that seem deplorable to us, but American poverty is nothing like third-world poverty.  Of course, it bothers me too, but it does make me hopeful to see what God and the church are doing.

No word on Chelsea's delivery yet. JJ and I of course have been praying all week, and especially yesterday, and we are on pins and needles.

I am avoiding the use of apostrophes in all these posts because it is so hard to find on this spanish keyboard.

Time to go try to sleep some more...