Health status

To my mother and all the families,
I know you are all probablly wondering about now what exactly is going here in Ometepe. Well........ let me start by saying that everyone is just fine now. One of our group members, Dee got really sick about four days ago. We went to the school to clean up and even though we were all taking percautions and wearing gloves we believe that Dee picked up a paracite from the ground. (Chickens, dogs, pigs, and other animals walk around and leave droppings ANYWHERE on the ground here.) She spent about 15 hours straight vomitting and diareaha. The leaders for the trip tried to do their part, however they did not get her to the doctor fast enough for her dehydration. In turn, they spent an extra day trying to get her to hydrate herself, but she could not hold anything down, including ice cubes. Finally, the day before yesterday we got her an IV which brought her back to life. She went through a long time of suffering but she recieved medicine and is back to herself, (for the most part). She is leaving today to go back home. She tried her best to stick it out, but it is very difficult to completely recover without the comfort of your own home. This really broke her down and made her vulnerable. If it were me, I would be doing the same thing. She is not strong enough to do the rest of the activities we have planned, and simply the smells around are not in agreement with her.
As far as the rest of our group........ Katie is still battling a head cold and cough with some stomach discomfort, Qadeer is better but he did get a case of a weak stomach, Johnathen has went through two spells of diareha but is doing fine now, Matt has went through the head cold and some stomach discomfort but is doing well at the moment also. Our teacher Joe went through an overnight severe diareah, however he was able to hold liquids and get through it. Sarah has experienced the head cold and some minor stomach discomforts. Mom, as for me, I think I am doing the best out of the group. I began the trip constipated pretty bad, but I am normal now. I have had the head cold, but am really doing fine right now. I think for me mostly I just want to come home. As for the group as a whole, we all were very fatigued the entire trip and we believe it is because the first night we did not get the sleep our bodies needed. Therefore, we spent the rest of the trip trying to regain our strength as we were doing a very intensive hike and working on our project and last but not least overworking our brains with spanish. I brought airborne and it has saved my health and saved the group as they need it. (Thanks grandma for always harping on the airborne! I bring it with me everywhere now!)
Overall, our group is pretty ready to come home, but we want to finish what we came here for. We are on schedule with our sink project and the kids are very excited to have a sanitary sink. Everyone is doing what they can at the speed they can do it. It is very important to nurse our health so we can all come home healthy. Please don't worry......... Fausto posted all this info because he was informed through email that Dee was having a hard time. He didn't know the details exactly so he was helping us to take percautions. Our support system was amazing with our group and I would not have traded a single person in our group for anything. Thanks to our group for being so understanding for eachother!!! Despite all this, we have really made close ties and built friendships among eachother. We have all learned a lot from this trip and really do cherish the opportunity! I don't want any of you to get scared. I just want to put it out there what we are experiencing. These are all things that can happen when you travel to a new place. Please ask any questions you have, and I will be happy to reply!!!!
Sending all of our love!!!! I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Erica