A Maddening Malady

For the past two days I have been pretty sick. I'm not sure what I had but it wasn't pretty. I know it wasn't malaria or cholera because (a) I was tested and it came back negative and (b) I'm feeling fine now! I actually just had my first meal in two days. I'm glad I was able to keep it down because I was getting a little loopy from lack of sustenance. My lips hurt pretty bad though, they are all chapped and bleeding because I couldn't even keep down water. Actually, I couldn't even keep down chewable pepto, it was awful. But I don't know if it was worse for me or Kim... apparently Kim (who hopes to be a DOCTOR some day) almost throws up whenever you talk about puking. I think she might have died if she actually saw me throw up.

It all started yesterday at breakfast; I had just sat down with piece of bread with jam and two hard boiled eggs when I started feeling a little weird. I thought nothing of it and went through the laborious process of de-shelling my hard boiled eggs. For some reason the eggs here have super sticky shells and that strange little white skin between the shell and the egg is really thick. Needless to say I was really looking forward to savoring the fruits of my labor, even though they were, in fact, eggs. I took one bite and had to run out of the dinning hall. I didn't even make it to my room before I puked.

*power outage... 24 hours later*

Well there was another power outage so I was unable to journal. It is now Thursday. But back to being sick... After getting sick after breakfast I felt a little better so I decided I was ok to go to Swahili class. Turns out that was a mistake, about 15 minutes into class I needed to find a bucket, and quick. I said to my teacher, Omega, "I am going to be sick, where is the bathroom?". I don't think he understood what I was saying and somehow in my ailing disposition I remembered, "Najisikia mgonjwa" (I feel sick in Swahili). He then understood me and asked one of the teachers something in Swahili. "I AM GOING TO BE SICK, WHERE IS THE BATHROOM?" I insisted, but Omega was still unaware of the urgency of the situation. He continued asking the other teacher something, I think they were determining which bathroom I should go to. Kim, not wanting to see me throw up, yelled, "AUDRY, WHERE IS THE BATHROOM?" Audry is one of the Canadian students in the cabana right next to us. I got up and walked in the direction Audry pointed. At seeing me move, Omega then realized that I meant I was going to be sick RIGHT NOW! He then proceeded to lead me to the bathroom, which was a very, very, long distance away in a sort of an office area. I somehow made it to the bathroom before I threw up. Looking back it was quite comical, but at the time it was very miserable situation. After giving my vomit sacrifice to the porcelain goddess I took a quick malaria test and went back to my room to lie down.

I spent the first half of my sick day on one side of my bed, pressed against the wall in the fetal position, listening to my ipod. Then my ipod ran out of battery. I was so angry that my ipod, my only source of comfort on this God forsaken continent, gave out on me. I felt like Jonah, cursing God for destroying my happy little vine, wishing I could die.

But after I threw up a few more times I started to feel significantly better. My mood improved dramatically, I was no longer cursing God or Africa, and I was able to release myself from the fetal position. I summoned the energy to walk across my 10' room to plug in my ipod and I got some reading done. At noon Audry came back with my malaria results, thank God they were negative! By that time my ipod was fully charged and I listened to some NPR shows I downloaded.