School resumed on Monday under gray skies, rain and less than 50% attendance. Unfortunately, it wasn't the weather keeping the kids home. A planned demonstration at the bomb site may have kept some families home, but the truth is people are still mourning the loss of Prime Minister Hariri.
More than 100,000 people gathered at noon and observed a moment of silence at the exact time of the explosion a week before. Meanwhile, members of parliament who oppose the current leaders, staged a peaceful walkout and asked for the resignation of the president. The Lebanese I have spoken to see this as a good sign and are hopeful that it will lead to a more trustworthy government. No civil war here.
Tuesday's attendance was more normal, but the mood was not. It's tough to get back into the swing of things. Then, to make things worse, my back "went out". I'm not sure what that phrase means, but this is probably close to it. I was leaning over a student's desk reading their work when a sudden pain exploded from my lower back. It felt like an electric shock bolting my hip joint in place. I straightened up slowly and fought the tunnel vision which had began to close in and eased my way through the last ten minutes of class. I don't even think the kids caught on. Luckily I live on campus so I was able to go home and relax, but after an hour or so I couldn't sit or stand or lay without wincing. So I stopped in the doctor's office and within minutes he diagnosed it as "back muscle spasms" and prescribed a muscle relaxant.
Marcey ran up the hill to the pharmacy and filled it for me while I found a friend to cover my afternoon class. Before school let out I was flat on my back in bed. I was hoping that the muscle relaxants would be strong and relieve my symptoms overnight but I was nearly paralyzed went I woke up this morning. The pain was unbearable so I wrote out some lesson plans and arranged for a sick day. I stood up as little as possible and took as many pills as I was allowed. By mid afternoon I was able to shuffle my feet to the bathroom without producing a blood curdling scream, but I still had to bite my lower lip and use the back of a chair to lift myself from bed. So I called the school secretary and told her I'd be out tomorrow too.
Apparently, Parafon, isn't as powerful as the muscle relaxant people are always getting addicted to. If my back isn't significantly better by tomorrow, I'm going to ask for something stronger. In the meantime, I'll stay horizontal and type with one hand. Maybe next week I can manage to work for five days in a row.