I learned something new about Colombian culture yesterday. People do not call in sick. Johana came in yesterday with what she assumed was food poisoning. If you know me, you know that I catch just about any stomach thing in the air. So I wasn't super excited that she was potentially spreading germs around the house. When she said that she wasn't feeling that well I asked if she just wanted to get home, and she was so fast to say, no no- i'm ok! it's fine! I gave her some advil, and she kept working. By 10, she was looking terrible, and said that she thought she would leave after she made lunch. I told her not to wait- just go.. I can cook lunch. No problem! She said that in her house they told her that you CAN'T leave before making lunch. It's the most important job of the day. I said, "Johana- in the US, I make all the meals myself. I can do it today, go home!!!" She maintained the position that she needed to prepare the lunch, and finally I got her to agree to leave after starting the rice, and putting the broccoli in the oven. (Since those things would be cooked at high temperatures and anything possibly there would be killed, I let her do it :) Then as she was leaving, she said that her mom was taking her to the clinic and then should would come back. I said NOOO NOOO NO NO! Go home and rest! I told her not to even bother with going to the doctor since they can't do anything for it anyway- Just go home, lay down, drink gatorade, and let it run it's course. Well she called last night to ask if she can stay home today. Of course we said yes! But she was so afraid to call and ask. Also, her mom sounded like she was in the back trying to help her build her case. She said that the doctor did a lot of tests and then determined that she had gastroenteritis. Um, obviously! You don't need tests to tell that you have an irritated, inflamed GI tract.
I can't believe that here you can have a a GI issue, and still be expected to go to work! People don't want to catch that!! I was talking to Carlos about that and he said that people here don't really think about the spreading of germs, it's not really the culture for a lot of people. I can't believe that people here don't get sick all the time! I am always surprised about how things work here. People work less hours, gets tons of holidays, but no sick days? Maybe the shortened hours help people stay healthier?
So what are we up to today? Not too much. I made breakfast (and actually did a good job if I do say so myself :) This is saying something not because I am a bad cook (i'm not!) but because everything here is gas, and I am used to everything electric. I constantly burn things, or dry them out since I don't get a lot of practice using the equipment here :) So while I work on trying to be a little like Johana, the kids are chilling out!
Now I am sitting down to watch Life of Pi that I bought pirated from the street... This copy is bad. It isn't in English and the only subtitles available are Spanish. And I keep hearing someone cough. We have had good luck with movies lately, so I guess it was time to get a bad one. When you buy pirated movies, you run the risk of hearing the people eating popcorn, babies crying, and as I am hearing now, coughing. Ugh. The lady I bought them from told me all of them are in English. Oh well, that's what I get for buying pirated movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment