Dropping Down into the Home Stretch

I am at dos semanas (2 weeks) and counting. It was an interesting week in some ways. I’m still battling my ear that plugged up on the way back up the mountain to Antigua last Sunday. This has made being in class even more challenging. In addition to my sketchy comprehension of the maestras, I’ve had to contend with just the flat-out inability to hear them very well. And, of course, one of them was very soft-spoken. There is also the added issue of all the other conversations going on around me going into my ‘good’ ear and not being able to counter-act them by having another ear with which to listen. It was pretty exhausting dealing with it. I finally got so frustrated on Thursday, I bailed about an hour into class and went to the Casa Ovalle office and asked if they could get me in to see a doctor.

That was a mixed event. He was very through and spoke English pretty well, but all he could tell me was “Yep, that ear is plugged up” and gave me a “prescription” for some drops to squeeze up my nose. We decided that if nothing had changed in the ear by Sat I was to go ahead and start taking the Cipro I brought with me. Although, it doesn’t seem to be bacterial, since my nose mucus is clear. (Sorry if the discussion of nose discharge bothers anyone, but that is the fact of the matter and the way you determine infection.) So, ANYWAY, I decided to start the Cipro last night (Friday). I couldn’t see what waiting 8 hours would accomplish, since I had no indication anything is trying to break loose. The one plus of having to go to the doctor is that the whole visit costs me about $16.25US and the drops were $9US.

I’m not encouraged that this is going to make any difference either. I really don’t know what I’m going to do about flying home, if my ear is still plugged. All I know is that it’s going to hurt like hell!! I’m going to check out on the Web and see if there are any tips to help relieve the pain.

At this point, I’m just really tired of having to deal with issues with my body down here. I’m not even feeling particularly bad right now, but not being able to hear is driving me crazy!! And not knowing what to do about it concerns me.

On a bright note, after my horrible Thursday morning, I went to eat lunch at a very nice Thai restaurant around the corner from the casa. I was the only one in there and the owner was the one waiting tables. We struck up a conversation toward the end of the meal, when I told him I had been there twice before and really liked his food. He was so happy to hear I was a repeat customer.

He was German or Dutch, I couldn’t quite place his accent, but he asked me if I knew where my family came from. So I told him we weren’t really sure but it looked like I was mostly descended from Scotch, Irish and English, with a dash of Native Am. and Black thrown in for good measure.

He then said that I must have some continental European in there somewhere because I “had the most beautiful eyes”. I think I blushed. That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard in a long time from someone I didn’t know. I was so flustered it didn’t even occur to me to tell him that it was probably the tiny bit of Native American in me that gave me my nice eyes, as I think they all have very beautiful eyes. He’s probably not familiar enough with our indigenous population to know that, either.

ANYWAY, I was very flattered and it definitely made me feel better despite my stupid ear!

Next post, I’ll tell y’all about celebrating 4th of July in Antigua. It was a very multi-cultural event!