newest article

Hey guys,

I know it's been a while. sorry about that. I PROMISE I will get back to updating you! I just saw Madisyn's blog, a girl from Oregon here in Bahia, and it made me quite ashamed of the little blog that I was once proud of. So I promise, it'll get back up there.
I thought I'd start with showing you my latest article for school back home in Indiana. Just sent it in today. Here it is...!



"Remember my last article, in which I warned the John Adams student body about the mosquito disease, Dengue? It's a virus that's been spreading around Brazil, especially Bahia, through the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, recognizable by its black and white stripes. It's already affected 15% of my city this year alone.
That's a basic summary of my last contribution to the paper. You know, warning about ways to prevent being eaten alive by disease ridden insects. I thought I was doing a good deed; doing my part in the fight against Dengue; letting the world know through my Dengue awareness article.
A week later, I got Dengue.
It started out as nausea. I ignored it, as that night I had tried some of my host mother's artificial sweeteners that I had long deemed unfit for human consumption. I assumed that the fake sugars had given me a stomachache, and went to bed.
The next morning, I woke up with a fever, and a sharp pain behind my eyes, a symptom characteristic of Dengue.
That day also happened to be International Women's Day. Men in Brazil show their appreciation by bringing their wives and daughters roses and chocolate. I got a Tylenol. And at this point, the little pill was worth its weight in gold.
Sunday night, my host family dragged me to the hospital kicking and screaming. I say it like that because my host brother literally had to drag me out of the house and into the car- I was still convinced that I had the flu, and if I gave it some time, the wrenching pain would go away on its own. That turned out to be wishful thinking.
Because I'm not a citizen of Brazil, and I don't have the same health insurance as my family, I had to go the public hospital (at this, Brazilians gasp; public?!).
In the waiting room, I watched as two barefoot, shirtless motorcyclists came in with wounds that could have been shark bites. They sat on a bench and bled on the dirty tile floor while waiting for their names to be called.
A middle-aged woman with a teenage girl in her arms ran in, screaming for help. The girl was unconscious, but the woman screamed about hemorrhaging, another characteristic of Dengue. Once someone vomits blood, it's a sign that the virus has progressed too far in the victim's body. Get in line, lady.
Around me sat men, women, and children, all with their heads against the wall, clutching their stomachs and rubbing their eyes. It was a sad scene. One look at all the sick people, vomiting into plastic bins, made me start thinking: maybe I should be wearing a mask...
One by one, people were admitted inside to be treated. Finally, my turn came. As I opened up the door, I was surprised by how crowded it was. Gurneys lined the walls with more patients, from grown men to toddlers, all with the same Dengue symptoms. There didn't seem to be any order in the place- there certainly wasn't enough space. I took one more look around the room. Hm.. no magazines.
I was taken to the special Dengue station. There I received an injection and a blood test. For the next few hours, I sat alongside my Dengue ridden brethren and waited for my fever to break.
The fever disappeared after one night, but the overall feeling of "yuck" stuck around for about a week. The upside was that I missed school. The downside was that I couldn't eat, sleep, keep my eyes open, or leave the house for eight days. By the time I felt better, I had lost a lot of weight.
Along with the virus came flowers, cards, and a myriad of "get well soon" emails from friends here in Brazil. From everyone else, a simple "I told you so. Next time wear repellent." Sufficed!
But to be honest, the latter proved much more efficient. The next time I so much as step outside the house after five o'clock at night, you can be sure that I'll be wearing so much bug spray that I'll have to peel it off by the end of the night."

That is only one thing that happened to me in the past few weeks.
I made the decision to switch families a few weeks ago. I know, I know. They were the perfect host family. But my host sister was just.. well, she was a piece of work. One of her little nicknames is "Psycho". In short, she made my experience with my 2nd host family very trying. She came close to making it really bad for me. But that boost of confidence that comes with being on your own in a foreign country really helped me pull through; I got out of that bad situation and into a third host family.
My new family seems great. Today's Wednesday and I moved here Monday night. And while I miss my 2nd host mom, dad, and brother terribly, I feel like I have a good shot here. We live in an apartment. I have a 12 year old brother and an 18 year sister with whom I share a room. She's really cool, her name's Flora. Both my parents are psychologists.
The great thing is that they don't at all smother me with attention, as too many host families do with a new exchange student. They treat me like a student that's lived here for months already. They don't give me too much attention. And that, I think, is the key to avoiding a jealous host sibling, like I had with "Psycho".
Don't worry, Brazilians don't read this blog.
I have so much more to write, more pictures to post, more stories to tell. But I'm off to meet a friend! I'm going to UESC today, with a friend from my church. UESC is the public university in Ilheus that's freaky hard to get into, and has the only library for.. many a mile.

Zoe