A couple apologies...

I think I owe everyone a couple of apologies:

The first is for those of you who thought that maybe I had died since my last post alluded to blood tests...and then you didn't hear from me for several days. I am still alive, though sometimes it feels like barely so.

The second is because due to my illness (which is NOT malaria, by the way) I have been totally out of the random adventures that the other three girls have been embarking upon, so I will not be able to comment on them in my usual depth and detail.

I have some kind of infection or flu that has kept me down and out for the past 5 days or so. I've had a steady fever (that can be moderated by tylenol) and developed a hacking cough and just weakness and exhaustion. By some miracle, no one else on the team has gotten seriously ill (Janine has/had a cough, but is definitely on the road to recovery). I have seriously been spending my days cooped up in our little apartment, watching tv episodes i downloaded to my computer and trying to sleep as much as possible in the hope that my body will find the strength to recover.

Since I still haven't been getting better, I've started taking a course of antibiotics that will hopefully overcome whatever ridiculousness has been attacking my body. To those of you who have been praying for my speedy recovery, thank you. And can you please keep praying? And this point, I am so beyond tired of being sick and not being able to participate in anything. Especially since I am now preparing to begin the second half of my travels that will see me wandering through asian nations on my own, full health will be essential!

We leave for Jakarta tomorrow morning at 8am, and Wally will be on our flight. Somehow, that makes me feel safer about the whole trip. And the rest of the girls agree with me as well. We'll spend tonight packing up our things and trying to get as much rest as possible, since the plane atmosphere isn't incredibly conducive when it comes to fruitful rest.

We'll be in Jakarta for 2 days before we all leave on Wednesday. My flight into Kuala Lumpur leaves at 6.15pm and the girls' flight into Tokyo leaves at 10.15pm. It'll be weird to not be traveling with them anymore, to say goodbye and know that my trip is far from over.

Our final day of training on Friday went really well. We had some productive conversations and got some feedback from the participants. They were all so gracious and kind responding to our seminar. We took several group shots and then headed back to the house so Janine and Liz and Grace could get ready for the trip to the river. This would be the first of several activities that I would miss out on :(

Of course, from what I heard about the river, it was a little (or a lot) more intense than what had been promised, so I couldn't regret my decision to stay home and rest. Though it really would have been awesome to visit this truly blue river.

On Saturday, everyone headed to the beach in the morning (which reports indicate was once again very lovely), and once again I stayed behind. It's unfortunate because my rest hasn't been very quality--I wake up feeling more ill than when I went to sleep and drenched in perspiration (despite the A/C) or suffering from chills (despite the blanket). I'm getting quite tired of it all.

I must admit that I'm a little annoyed with God right now--He brings me all the way to Papua but doesn't allow me to participate in any of the exciting things available here? It just doesn't seem cool. My one solace is that the true reason I came here was to do the teacher training and despite my illness, I was there each morning and led the training in all the strategies that I had originally signed up to do. In that, I can see God's grace.

So, this has certainly been the least cheerful and exciting blog entry, and I promise to attempt better in the near future.

Lesson of the day:
(from Grace and Liz, who both suffered from coral attacks)

"Getting scratched by coral is not like a regular scratch. It stings!"