When I think back about this past week, it is hard to reflect. I have been in and out of hospitals and trying to get well. I have been discouraged, and my spirit has been weakened. For as busy as I had been and for as much as I was doing my body got run down. My health slipped away and I could no longer do my work. On Tuesday I went to the hospital. I tried to push through but I had been pushing through the day’s prior. I knew a few hours after I had woken up that I needed to go to the hospital. I called the administrator where I volunteer here in Somanda and he came to check on me. At first I asked if he could just bring some nurses by the house but I wasn’t so lucky. He came by my house and after seeing me told me I needed to come to the hospital. I knew I didn’t have the strength to walk so he managed to get a car to come and take me. Even with being a “mzungu” and with Richard taking me past so many people in line to just get admitted it still took hours. At this point I was so sick I just needed to lie down. I didn’t care if it was the ground. I felt so bad and I hadn’t even been in a serious accident or didn’t even have a serious emergency and I couldn’t get past how long these people had to wait in line to get medical care. Richard took me to an area where I had to wait for the doctor. There were three other people waiting. The girl beside me had a pretty bad cut on her leg. We all were sitting on this skinny wooden bench but I was about to faint. I looked at her and looked at her lap and then looked at her again. She lifted her hands up as if giving me the okay. I laid my head in her lap and just closed my eyes trying to find some comfort. It felt like another hour went by before I was called. The doctor asked me my symptoms, took my temperature, which was 102, saw that my blood pressure was 90/50 and also saw that I had lost 14 pounds. She decided to admit me. They gave me fluids and oral antibiotics. It took 24 hours to wait for my results. They told me the next day that I had tested slightly positive for typhoid fever. This could have come from water or food contamination.

I was very thankful for the visitors I had during my time at the hospital. My headmistress came, Mwajabu and Mkama came, and many nurses that I’m friends with from other wards came to visit me. I was very happy. When Emily got out of class she came to bring me some fruits to eat. The hospitals here in Africa do not provide you with any food or drink that is up to friends or family to bring to you. My fever was still elevated and nothing was improving but they did not have a mosquito net in my room and they felt it was very important for me to sleep under the net so they let me go home to sleep. That night Dr. Mponya forced me to go eat chips mayai with him. He was determined I was going to eat food. I just couldn’t eat. Every time I would eat I would get so sick. Let me remind everyone that chips mayai is an omelette with French fries. I was surprised I kept it down…until I woke up the next morning. It was sickness all over again. I talked to my field director and she encouraged me to transfer to a better hospital that was three and a half hours away. I knew at this point it was my only hope to feeling better. I just wasn’t sure if I could withstand the bus ride. Bus rides in Africa are brutal. You cannot move positions and they fit about everything known to man in the bus. Goats, babies, charcoal stoves, if it can fit then it can come. All the fellow World Teach volunteers felt like Mwanza was the best bet for curing this sickness so they were really encouraging me to go. The hospital was more advanced and could provide better care…I just needed to get there. Emily missed a day of school to come with me. We managed to get a window seat and I didn’t budge the entire ride. Three and a half hours turned into five and a half hours. After about the three-hour mark I couldn’t hold in the tears any longer. I just wanted off the bus. It was so crowded and so hot. We kept going through checkpoint after checkpoint and there was not enough airflow. The last two hours my head just hung out of the bus. We finally made it and I ran to the “choo” (bathroom) as fast as I could. The taxi driver dropped me straight off at the hospital. They had to re do the tests that Somanda did and I got my results in 30 minutes (crazy the difference). It showed that I had a large amount of amoebas (parasites) and that’s why I was not getting any better. They gave me different medications and told me no matter what this would stop the constant bouts of sickness and all would be good. I left and checked into a hostel and then tried to get some food to take my medicine before I went to sleep. I couldn’t even finish my food and I was so sick again. It was a very rough night alone in my room just wanting to feel better but my body wouldn’t let me. Emily and I got separate rooms so this added to me feeling even more alone. It was so hot and I just wanted to be in my own bed back in Bariadi with a fan not in this hotel room by myself. It was hard too because I had no TV or no music it was just me in a room thinking about how awful I felt. The next morning I was not any better. I decided to go back to the hospital and they admitted me for two days. They gave me IV antibiotics and fluids for dehydration. They switched the medicines again and this time it actually worked. Third time is the charm! After a day of rest in my hospital bed and a day of fluids I felt like a new person. Emily brought me dinner and I was able to keep it down which was a huge sign of improvement. They had a TV in my room and believe it or not they had good shows playing! I watched Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. I didn’t feel so alone with the familiarity of American television and a nicer surrounding. Emily brought me a milkshake that night which made me happy. The next day it was the same routine, white walls caving in on me. I just wanted to go home. I finally left the next day after 24 hours of no sickness. They sent me home with 5 days worth of oral antibiotics. On the bus ride home I couldn’t stop thinking about how important my health is. I have to stay healthy in order to stay here. I want to accomplish so much while I am here but I will not be able to do that if I cannot remain healthy. It makes me so sad that something like water can be such a setback for me on my journey but I am trying to remain strong. I lost my spirit for a while this week but now that I am recovered I am going to work so hard to regain my strength. I love it here too much to go home early. I love the people, I love the work I am doing, and I love the passion I have created inside myself for helping these people. When that got taken away from me this week I felt like my entire spirit was drained out of me. Please pray that this will not happen again, that I will stay healthy and that my spirit will remain strong.

"For my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9