Yesterday I was just not feeling too well most of the day, but wasn’t sure why. When I picked the boys up from school at noon, we had to make a run to the grocery store. Did you know that it’s a bad idea to take your kids to the store with you when they are tired and hungry? I knew that too, but for some reason went anyway. We head to the produce section–the whole caravan of us. Jake with his pre-school sized grocery cart and me pushing Derek in the “car cart.” Pretty cool they have those here, too. It’s awesome, because I can strap Derek in and he can pretend to drive all around the store. I can usually get 20 minutes of shopping done before he starts whining to get out so he can run all over the store (I don’t let him, of course).
ANYWAY, so as I turn to go down the next isle to get some apples, Jake is trailing behind me and playing with some tongs that are hanging down in front of some unknown Peruvian fruit. Next thing I know I hear him screaming and crying, run back over there and find him surrounded by workers and concerned fellow shoppers. He is holding and staring at his hand, which has several blond, hair-thin, thorns sticking out of it! I picked out the ones that I could see. But everyone else around me was highly concerned and eager to help, because Jake was still freaking out. A couple of ladies were there who spoke English and they asked me if I had any tweezers, because there were more thorns in his hand and they are hard to see. Needless to say, we found out why those tongs were there–for handling this fruit called a tuna, a cactus fruit. I guess it’s similar to a prickly pear.
God took over for me, because I felt helpless and clueless. Those sweet ladies (all of them) took care of everything. One went to go buy some tweezers and another led Jake over to a sink to wash his hands. Within 10 minutes all was well.
That evening we went to Chili’s for a birthday dinner for Sofia (Happy birthday, Sof! Can’t believe you are already 5!). By this time, though, I was feeling worse and didn’t even order food. On the way home I had the boys in the car (Wes had left to play soccer) and we had to stop and get gas. Filling up your tank here is actually quite a luxury. You are not allowed to do it yourself, so every station is full service. And in some places, they even have fill stations in the medians of the road, so you just pull over and they fill up your tank and then you are back on your way. Pretty cool. I only had 20 soles of cash with me (about $6), so I asked the guy to go ahead and give me a full tank, thinking I would pay with my debit card. This happened to me once before, so you would think that I would have known that this was another bad idea from Stacy for the day. He fills up my tank, it ends up being about 135 soles, then my card gets denied. So here I am in the middle of the road, can hardly speak any Spanish, and have no way of paying for this. I end up leaving my drivers license and car insurance with the guy and tell him I’ll be back after I find some cash. Long story short, the Thompsons come to my rescue and I clean them out of ALL the cash they had on hand so I can go back and pay for it. Thanks again, Alison!
So I’m finally on my way home. By this time I am really feeling nauseated. And the drive home, which normally would take 20 to 30 minutes, ended up taking 45-50 minutes because I got stuck in horrible traffic. I was literally praying the whole time that God would let me at least make it home before I threw up, because I was stuck on the highway with nowhere to go and it would have been all over me. Lovely, right? Before I made it home, I called and asked Wes to meet me there. I beat him home and managed to get a sleeping Derek out of the car and into his bed. But I had to leave Jake asleep in the car and just waited for Wes to get there, because I was in need of a few moments with the toilet.
I’m learning that Peruvian viruses hate me. I was sick all night and things got worse after that. Wes said that when he got Derek up this morning he found Derek laying in his own dried up vomit, but he was happy as a lark. I know, another lovely sight for you to imagine. Thankfully, after a bath, Derek’s been fine all day. I, on the other hand, am still in bed. But at least I am finding time for updates now, right?
3 Comments
Oh, Stacy! I’m SO sorry this happened to you. I hope it passes quickly. (I feel your pain…Singapore viruses hate me, too, and I’ve had more stomach bugs than all my boys combined. Wonder why this is?)
and, can I just say, that the “cactus fruit” thing would TOTALLY happen to Caleb, too. I’m so glad some sweet people were there to help you out. What a day!
For the record, that fruit is pretty good. On days like that, I just thank God for throwing all the junk in all at once so I can move past and be done with it all instead of spacing it out. Glad everything is settled back down now!