24 Hours.

A little less than 24 hours ago, I arrived back at Welcome Home. Hugs and kind sentiments abounded as I saw everyone again. Kind sentiments are expressed with words but mostly with food. My beloved housemates immediately began to invite me to sit down yesterday afternoon and eat a meal with them. Once again, today, our friend from Sudan facing a meal alone asked me to join him for lunch. Unlike Canadians, it is unbearable and most aversive to eat by oneself. I feel obliged to eat their food and absolutely rude when I turn down their offers. Quite honestly, most of the fare is delicious but there are times when I've no appetite or just ate or really just want to make my own food.

I've also spent a few of the last 24 hours at the hospital with our newest resident, Regina* She moved in the day after I flew out for Bolivia. Soon after meeting her yesterday, she showed me some blisters on her arms and scalp. She complained that she felt hot in the inside. Her caseworker had brought her to the doctor, but it was too busy, so she was sent back to Welcome Home with a bottle of Advil.

This morning, as I was about to leave for church, Regina asked me to come into her room. By this time, her face was covered in blisters and they were increasing all over her body. She looked like she was trying to crawl out of her skin with all her scratching and the crazed look on her face. Skipping church, we immediately headed to emergency. As soon as the triage nurse saw her symptoms, her eyes caught mine with urgency. She immediately jumped up and grabbed a mask for herself and Regina, squirted sanitizer over every surface and rushed us inside to a sealed-off room. Another doctor, motioned for me to put on scrubs, gloves, and mask too. She had the whole outfit on plus a splash guard that covered her entire face. Needless to say, Regina was distraught and thought for sure that she had contracted some horrible, lethal illness that was going to contaminate the entire human race. I kept trying to assure her with my touch, but she would yelp, "No touch me! I no want this disease coming to you!"

After more than an hour of hyper-hygienic activity and quarantine, another doctor came in and quickly determined what was ailing Regina: chicken pox. Not the next super-bubonic plague or cholera, but every child's worst nightmare clothed in calamine lotion and jeweled with beads of Benadryl.

Regina is drugged up and faces 7 - 10 days of intense itching, but she and the world are going to be fine. It took less than 24 hours to initiate me back into the fabric and flow of life at Welcome Home. My stomach is full and the world is safe. What more could one ask for?

*name changed