What Next?

After the break-in and then a great Thanksgiving, you would have thought my life would have been back to normal, right? Wrong! Sometime in the not-so-distant past it seems I was bitten by the nasty, white-footed mosquito that carries Dengue Fever. I'm the 5th Peace Corps volunteer to come down with this really nasty fever in the past month.

But before I got sick, I finally had a day at the beach! Can you believe last Sunday was the very first time I've spent the day in the water snorkeling and sunning on the sand and drinking a few Carib's under the palm trees? The pics are of Cockleshell beach which is the north end of St. Kitts. Very nice, great restaurant, good snorkeling. And I finally saw my first Green Velvet monkey that roam the islands here. Everyone talks about them, but I had never seen one until driving back from the beach one casually walked across the road. No picture opportunity - pooh!

So back to the dreaded Dengue. After a very busy day on Nevis on Monday and a beautiful sunset on the ferry ride back, I'm sitting working Tuesday afternoon with another PCV when my teeth start chattering. And things got worse from there. Headache so bad you want to just take it off! Your whole body aches - every bone and joint feels like it's broken. Fever runs about 102, your get an itchy rash, you don't even want to look at food and so tired all you want to do is sleep - but you can't - because it hurts to lay down. There is really no treatment except a strong dose of Tylenol, cold showers, lots of liquids and rest. It supposedly runs it course in about 2 weeks and I'm on day 4 1/2.

The PC nurse calls and stops by daily, runs me to the hospital for daily blood tests (if your white count starts to drop drastically, into the hospital you go.) George made me home-made soup and the younger crowd came over and did my dishes. So I'm being taken care of, but I HATE BEING SICK!

Haven't been able to do much work either, as just too tired. But the big project I'm working on on Nevis is progressing and the website I've helped design went live yesterday http://www.nevisfilmfestival.com. So life does keep on going. And I will get better - hopefully sooner rather than later!

Well, this is about all the energy I have to write this week. Until next time...

Take care of each other.

ReAnn

Pictures:
1. Sunset seen from ferry on the ride back from Nevis
2. The north end of St. Kitts, with great salt pond and Nevis in the back ground
3. Aaron, Chris & George enjoying a day at the beach
4. Cockelshell Beach