I guess it's customary for me to have to go to the hospital here since I had to go to the one back in Quito.  But at least this time it wasn't bad bacteria, an intestinal infection, or a parasite, but instead a whole new experience for me.  So here's how my day went:  took the 3ish hour boat ride from Isabela to San Cristobal (my home island) where I was curled up into a ball resting for most of the trip, returned to my house for some vegetable rice & of course jugo, sprawled across my bed & slept for another 3 hours, then in the evening went to the beach with my family, and lastly returned home to shower before church and dinner.  My family doesn't normally go to church but the day was the 8th anniversary of my host mom's dad's death so most of the family was going including my mom's 7 siblings and their kids.  So about almost an hour in to the Catholic service the priest starts burning sage or some other kind of plant as a purification process to cleanse the church of any evil, I think.  At this time we were all kneeling, when suddenly a more noticeable pain arises in my stomach and a weird sensation rapidly grows in my head with blackness edging in to encompass my vision.  Later I opened my eyes to hear people yelling my name, "Carolina Carolina!"  I was picked up by the shoulders with my hair flipped over in my face & seated on the bench behind me.  However I fainted again and woke to my mom on my right side & a man on my left holding me up to stand.  We walked to the hospital and that helped me regain consciousness.  I won't go into detail about the next 4 hours in the hospital, but at midnight I was able to leave.  As I got up a wave of nausea hit me and yeah....  Through all of this though half of my family was thinking I was pregnant (it's customary for people here to start having kids around 17-20 years old) and the other half thought I was possessed by demons since I fainted as the priest was in the cleansing process, moving the burning plant up and down like he was painting a wall.  So while I was in the hospital in and out of sleep, I was murmuring, "no estoy embarazada y no estoy con diablos".

Now as part of my recuperation, my mom has me on a strict diet of lentils, fish, and eggs to help with my anemia since during spring break I wasn't able to get protein & iron rich foods thanks to the poor planning of our wonderful & super helpful coordinator in Galapagos, but I will do my best to not elaborate on her charming aristocratic American personality.  So anyways my mom has been keeping a close eye on me making sure I get plenty of rest & drinking up her all natural jugo de remolacha and te de manzanilla at meals.  The 1st drink is another Harry Potter potion but not quite as delicious as the other one I talked about in my previous post.

                          jugo de remolacha         te de manzanilla            manzanilla plant