It's me

It's me
The Bedouin Woman

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Return From Brasi l(Installment 2)

I’m not sure how many people read this blog and note, I hope someone does, but even if no one reads it, it helps me to remember exactly how much God worked in our lives there in Brasil.

Today I will relate the “cultural shock” I experienced even when I had no idea what was happening to me.

When we arrived in Brasil, it was almost 12 days after everybody else had arrived, people from Venezuela and the US. We were late because we could not get airline tickets that we could afford.

It all started out innocently enough, a head cold, how bad could that be? Sneezing, coughing, lethargy, the usual head cold symptoms. For some reason it was magnified in this case. On the night we were to enjoy a c

Churasca(Brazillian barbecue)I felt sick. Mostly from riding the bus, crowded and stuffy, I got nauseated so stayed back at the boys house and laid down until they were ready to go back to the girls house(where we live). I just got worse from there.

The next day I was encouraged to stay back at the Chakra, where we lived)and not travel with the girls to CM. I lay in bed till well past one pm. No one knew I was sick, so, no one came to get me for lunch, not that I could eat anyway. Talk about feeling alone and isolated. Mind you, I’m still dealing with pain in my right arm as well.

If I was home, I would have tea, and medicine at my disposal, I did have some Robitussin, which didn’t seem to help much. To tell you the truth I was beginning to be very homesick. I wanted my family, I wanted TLC from my daughter. But God was showing me, I could survive with just Him and I did.

My cold was beginning to break up but when I coughed I got dizzy. By now it was the weekend and on the weekends 2 of us stay at the Chakra and 2 of us go to the Republica for the weekend to spend time with another group of older girls. I was home with Michelle, a 19 year old who spoke very little English. She had no idea what was happening to me. Inside I felt like my world was crashing all around me. I had no one I could talk to,to explain how I was feeling.

I wanted to board a plane bound for the USA immediately. I began to cry out to God, why was I going through this pain and torment. I’m praying to God, through pain, through tears and heartache.Then I began to read the Psalms, Isn’t that what David did when he was going through tough times? If they were good enough for him then I knew they were good enough for me. Psalm 3 said “In Your Lord, I put my trust, let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in Your righteousness, bow down Your ear to me. Deliver me speedily, be my rock and refuge a fortress of defense to save me”. This was the beginning of me really trusting in God, If I didn’t have Him, If I couldn’t trust in Him, who could I trust? Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” I could go on and on with what the Lord spoke to me and ministered to me through His words.

One thing you need to understand is, where we lived, we had no means of communication, no phone, no internet service, and no means of transportation. We were pretty much isolated add that to the fact that no on speaks English and you have what they call “culture shock”.

My arm continued to pain me, the medicine the doctor gave me was wrecking my stomach. Pauline was away and I had no way of getting in contact with her. I must have been quite the mess when Michelle went to get Tia Bell, the director of the Chakra. When she came in I tried to tell her how I felt but she was clueless. So she took my blood pressure, which, of course, was elevated due to being sick, having pain and crying for 2 days.

She said “hospitale”, I said “NO”! She said yes, that my BP was too high to mess with(in Michelle’s words). So, reluctantly, I gave in and went.

Off to the hospital I went with a driver that spoke no English. How is this going to work? I thought to myself, little did I know that when one has a car there is more that happens then meets the eye. 4 other”sick” people were picked up and transported to the hospital with me. Fortunately one of them spoke English and was able to speak for me.

I could go on and tell you about that whole ordeal but I will save it for a future episode, I will call it “The Steven King” episode(scary hospital story)

We ended up spending about 8 hours in that place and when we finally all got seen and taken care of, I vowed I would never, ever go back there and God has been good to me and I never did have to see that hospital again. My BP was fine when I got there, they took an x-ray of my chest which revealed clear lungs but then they saw some gastric juices so I ended up getting an IV and medication for Prilosec. Most everybody I saw that was there at that hospital were getting IV’s including the 4 other people that accompanied me.

I will admit that I did begin to feel better after I went there. Perhaps it was being with people or maybe it was to see how fortunate we, who live in the USA are.

As I read over my notes during this particular time, and it wasn’t pretty, what I wrote, I shared some of it here but not all and I may never share all but suffice it all to say God had my back as He always does, anywhere I am, God is with me, even over there in Brasil.

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