New Digs

It's my first night in my new apartment!  I'm all moved out of the Wacek's (I think) and now am a resident at Apartemen Simprug Indah!  I haven't done anything yet, but drop my bags in my room and plop down on the couch.  Still not feeling well.  I sent another stool sample to the hospital.  Embarrassing story: Sending your poo to the hospital via your driver.  I now know the term for "fecal specimen" in Bahasa.  It came back clean, besides a little fat.  But because it's already been 8 days with no change, and parasites can be very difficult to find in stool anyway, the doctor decided to give me flagyl.  Being me (teacher, librarian) I decided to look this up...

Metronidazole (Flagyl) is an antibiotic effective against anaerobic bacteria and certain parasites.  Anaerobic bacteria are single-celled, living organisms that thrive in environments in which there is little oxygen and can cause disease in the abdomen, liver, and pelvis.  Giardia lamblia and ameba are intestinal parasites that cause abdominal pain and diarrhea in infected individuals.
Minor side effects include nausea, headaches, loss of appetite, a metallic taste, and rarely a rash.


I'll give it a shot.  I already have the first three symptoms anyway.  I also looked up all of those parasites mentioned above but will NOT be copying that info here.  Unless you like to be grossed out, I suggest you don't look them up either.  Let's just say if I end up having a worm crawl out of my nose, I'll try and get a picture of it for you.  I survived amoebas in Guatemala, I can get through this, too.  Of course, I'm saying that now, at 7:35pm, which has been the only time each day when I feel almost normal.  Tomorrow morning I might be singing a different tune.  

After I recovered from my morning in the bathroom, and after the driver returned from delivering my "sample," I packed up the remainder of my belongings (and snagged a half-full jar of peanut butter) and made the big trip across town.  According to google maps, the drive is 10.5 Km and should take about 15 minutes.  While the distance may be correct, the time certainly isn't.  Google must not know about Jakarta traffic, or the fact that you can only make left hand turns.  I left the Wacek's place at 1:17 pm and arrived here at 2:25pm.  

I've already learned many things about my new apartment.  1) I am much closer to a "call to prayer" speaker than I was before. 2) The neighbors have small children. 3) The elevators don't stop moving before the doors open, and they almost always make what we've dubbed a "ghost stop". 4) We have ants and cicaks (lizards) even on the 20th floor. 5) I need a lighter to light the oven or stove.  6) The wifi is SUPER fast! (Hint: good for skype calls).  7) If management tells you there are no parking spaces left, call the landlord and one will mysteriously appear!  8) I now know the universal hand signal for "I need someone to hook up the gas stove."  9) They keep space suits in the basement!

Love the boots

Don't get me wrong, these are not complaints, just observations.  I am really excited to be in a new apartment that I get to fill up and decorate with help from my roommate, Tina.  We now have a dining room table and chairs, sofa, tv, and beds.  Tina was proactive and bought her entire bedroom set before we even had an apartment.  I prefer to wait and think about things until I can't stand it any longer and just buy the first thing I see that will get the job done.  Still on my list - desk, nightstand or shelf, coffee table.  At the moment, the difficulty is that traffic during this month (Ramadan) is really bad (worse than usual) in the afternoons, but it isn't until afternoon that I feel well enough to leave the house.  So going shopping for anything on the list, well, it stinks.  Getting any work done and concentrating on my job here also gets difficult.  Please keep praying for me - for the flagyl to do the trick so that I can do what God called me here to do!