I don’t know what I ate, but it was like a tiger in my intestines. With an early morning flight out of Yangon, Myanmar facing me in eight hours, I felt the battle begin. By morning I was like a rag doll. My ribs ached and my throat was burned from vomiting. Then there was the airport. Dead still air with five hundred sweaty people crammed together. No air-conditioner despite the 90 degree heat. No fans either. Nausea is the worst feeling of all to me and I was feeling it in a major way. Sherry pampered me the best she could, but this is the sort of thing you just have to endure alone because everything just hurts.

I was on the verge of throwing up again the whole morning, but made it onto the plane without an incident. I laid my head in Sherry’s lap and fell asleep in that kind of half sleep you have when you are unwell. I was doing ok until she opened a pack of cashews. One whiff and I was heaving again until I fell asleep against the window. I felt some better when I woke upon landing. I was just glad to be in Thailand where care is easily available.

One thing I really love about most of the world is that you can go to a pharmacist directly and get treated without having to make a doctor’s appointment and spend $100 and an entire day just to get what you already know you need. In the airport I went to the pharmacist and described my problems. He gave me three packs of pills, neatly labeled in English and I felt better already knowing that this monster would soon go away. We had a 14 hour layover between flights (our flight back to Manila was a bargain $200 roundtrip but, as it turns out, doesn’t leave till 1:30 AM). So we checked into a cheap hotel and I slept for six hours. I felt much better in a prone position. I think I am on the mend already.

My body has paid for this trip in more than one way. A few days ago on the way to teach Robin’s group I walked across an open sewer that was covered by a wooden sidewalk. The planks held my weight until I was fully committed to them, then broke and I splatted like a water balloon into the dirt eight feet away. At least I didn’t land in the sewer itself. PTL