My craptastic (literally) last 24 hours. (or, don't eat the yellow melons)

So, I'm supposed to be leaving for my permanent site tomorrow morning, and I don't see how that's going to happen. I'm sitting in my room right now typing this, which is quite an accomplishment considering what went on the past 24 hours, but nothing is packed as of yet.

My clustermates decided to hold an American supra last night in honor of our host families which consisted of pizza, pasta salad, and real salad (well, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes). It started out super awkward because we had made all this food for hours, and our host families just basically sat there and stared at it. We kept bringing out food but no one would eat it. I ate a huge portion of yellow melon (think of a cantaloupe, the outside was similar), and then we started toasting to various things and drinking some pretty rank wine. but it was so awkward with no one eating or talking that that was all we could do. Then my LCF (Naili) said that I needed to stand up and sing, so I proceeded to sing the national anthem, Shenandoah, and Danny boy, which in retrospect were not exactly party songs. then other volunteers stood up and sang songs, which were all met with polite applause. Finally we just gave up and drank, and then somehow it turned into a massive photo session. My host sister Mary took 64 pictures in the span of 15 minutes, it was impressive. I walked home in the dark (which was super scary) and went to bed around 11:00.

At 4:00am I was awoken to the sound of a super intense storm, and rain hitting me even though my bed is about 12 feet from the nearest window. the storm was so bad that it had blown open all the windows in the house and everything was getting wet. On top of that my stomach was making some terrible sounds which I originally chalked up to being the usual diarrhea that accompanies a night of drinking. I battened the hatches, and went back to bed. It looked like bombs were going off though, and the power was out, so we had this weird affect of going from pitch black to completely visible. I imagine someone suffering from video game seizures would have a relapse.

Then this morning the power was out, and many volunteers reported structural damage to their houses (like, the roofs blowing away). myself, I was busy in the family outhouse trying to master the technique of taking a massive poop of liquid and throwing up at the same time. Apparently the melon I ate was of poor quality, and I can now say I've had my first food poisoning experience as a peace corps volunteer. It got to the point where I was crapping out the water I had drank not even 5 minutes ago, and as I told the doctor, I didn't know how I could keep doing this since there wasn't any poop to be pooped any more. I went to sleep and have been sleeping most of the day, missing out on a chance to see Gina one last time before we depart, and also missing the farewell dinner. At least now I don't feel entirely like death, so I'll take it. So if you ever go to Georgia, be very weary of eating the yellow water melon from the Kakhetian region during the summer. I know I will from now on. Now I have to figure out how to pack all my stuff.