Flu Week

Jules suddenly announced last week that he thought he had a fever and sure enough, he did. Figuring it was probably H1N1 because he wasn’t sick enough for it to be dengue, we quarantined him in his room and kept the soup and tea coming. I wasn’t worried about him so much as Cristina and Moni, our pregnant maid and cook, who are at a higher risk of complications than the general public. I told them to stay away from him and his room. As our house is open, I figured they weren’t really in danger working in other parts of the house, but I gave them the option to stay home. That really mystified them. But he’s not very sick they said. Yes, but it most likely is H1N1. Well he doesn’t seem that sick to me! I tried to explain the pregnancy thing, but they thought I was overreacting. They also didn’t understand why I didn’t take him to the doctor. Nicaraguans always go to the doctor whenever they are sick and get a shot. But if it wasn’t H1N1 I didn’t want to take Jules to the germ ridden environment of the local clinic. He also wasn’t sick enough to warrant driving into Managua to the good clinic.

Fever came back in two days, but Deb said that wasn’t a relapse, it was just the course of the fever. He stayed home two more days. Then after a day free of fever, I sent him to school for two days. Friday school was cancelled due to the H1N1 outbreak so they could clean the school. It seems they are about a half a year behind the states. The note said to keep the kids home and monitor them for symptoms, but of course my children along with most of the other kids at their school went to the movies.

I actually think it is all over Granada but everyone is so convinced it is a serious flu and no one thinks they have it. It is also not at all unusual be having a casual conversation with someone, say someone who is handing you some food in a store for instance, and say, how are you? Oh, they say, I’m so sick, I feel terrible, I’ve got a fever and chills and this horrible cough. as they pull out a dirty towel and hack into it.

Everyone throughout Granada is sick, but they all say it is a different virus. Or the change in temperature. Meanwhile, in the US, they are saying that most of the colds and flu going around are H1N1. After another conversation yesterday where I tried to convince someone they should be careful but they totally didn’t listen to me, I am done. I will now be a respectful visitor and not try to force my way of thinking on people.

When the kids went back to school on Monday, they reported that few kids were out of school. Maybe the closure was effective.

Cristina had her baby on last Friday, everyone is fine.