Eastern European Crud

Although most of the time the photos of the boys have them smiling, each boy has had some version of Eastern European Crud. Chris was the first to admit to symptoms in Eger. Jeff followed closely, took antiobiotics on his own, and now everyone has exhibited some aspect of the crud. For some, it begins with a sore throat, then upper respiratory congestion. It quickly moves to being run down and a constant cough. I can't tell you how often I look up from whatever I'm doing to see who is coughing. Fever and chills are a popular symptom. I think that the boys have been keeping the illness under control as long as they have because of the excitement of being in Europe. Ken has come down with what he thinks is an inner ear infection. We are feeding him antibiotics. Lawrence has come down seriously with the "crud"; he considered not going to Brac with the boys, something that he has been planning to do for months. Lawrence's way of dealing with illness is to sleep. Dave even came up with some version of the "Crud". One night, he moved his bed out on his balcony because he thought the evening was really hot. Lawrence also thought that the night was untowardly warm. I slept like a baby.

Mark had a beautiful description of the crud; "It's like staying up 6 hours at a disco and knowing that you're being exposed to everything bad....", or something along those lines. It's much too exciting for these boys to miss out on any experience although they are experiencing weakness. The good news is that we have been pummelting them with vitamin C, water, fresh fruit, airborne, throat lozenges, cough medicine (herbal) for who ever wants it. We've been trying to feed them extra food. I'm sure that part of the "crud" is that they are homesick and miss their moms and dads. Somehow, not having your family around when you're sick makes it just a little bit harder to get well. Then, of course, part of that theory goes out the door because at this moment, at the end of the trip, Ian and Lawrence are both pretty sick. At least they waited until the end of the trip.

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Spirits are high. Everyone still seems to be happy to be here. I have begun a new album on photobucket. It's called Brac. Click onto that album and check out the photos of Brac. I'm just beginning to learn how to use all these internet tools. By next year, or, hopefully, by the time the boys graduate, I'll have the photo snaps and blog much better organized.