Update from Moshi

Well, I'm finally back in the land of the living. I was completely knocked off my kilter these past four days with food poisoning, or so the doctor says. I woke up not feeling well on Thursday and after having had a few trips to the loo I decided a cup of tea was in order. Bad idea. It made me really sick and as I was leaning over the toilet to throw up I had that awful feeling of fainting coming on. As I was heading for the bathroom floor, I managed to grab the door, open it and call out for a friend. After a few minutes on the floor, a glass of water and wet cloth to the head I was able to catch my breath. By the time I managed to stumble back to my room, passed half the hostel who had come over to help, a cab had arrived and two of my friends were dressed with their bags over their shoulders ready to take me to the hospital. I pulled on a pair of jeans and decided to make the effort to put a bra on. Good thing really because as I arrived at the hospital, I passed a woman in a full burka. (It's actually black and called a sharshaf but wanted most of you to know what I was talking about)!


So here I was. The last place I ever wanted to be in Africa. And after seeing the doctor who ordered blood tests I was having exactly what I didn't want to have done to me in Africa. I was like something not right sat there with my arm outstretched. I watched every movement the woman did, worried about getting anything near me that could be contaminated. The needle was disposable and came out of a sealed package so I felt better. Only problem was it was a huge needle and as she approached my arm I actually said, "Dude, don't you have anything smaller?" To which she replies, "This is the smallest needle we have." The girls that came with me started laughing. I suppose I was lucky to get a sterilized needle at all! It was a quick process and in my delirious mood I had forgotten all the details so had a bit of a panic attack last night at the hostel and had to look up HIV and Hepatitis transmission information. What can I do in any case? Can't pay fear a dividend as my mum always says!


After the blood test came the stool sample. I thought, oh no, this is going to be so awful, thinking it would be a process of the doc inserting a swab or something "you know where" and taking it to the lab. No, no, no! This is Africa after all. Out walks the lab tech with one of those black camera film cases with the grey lids (for all of us old enough to remember when digital cameras were a thing of the future). She puts it down in front of me and I laugh, "what the hell am I supposed to do with that?!" Her colleague giggles and she takes the camera case away bringing back a slightly bigger official looking sample jar thing and places it in front of me. Again, but this time to myself, I ask, "What the hell do I do with that?!" The reality of what the next ten minutes is going to be like makes me feel even worse and although I've had awful diarrhea all morning I don't feel the urge. Of course. I ask for rubber gloves - which they had, thank the Universe - and I shuffle off to the bathroom. The experience lasted no longer than 5 minutes and wasn't as traumatic as I had expected. Thank the Universe again! This time for all things celestially aligning at that exact moment to help guide "things" exactly where they were meant to go! Enough said!


Results came back quickly and it turns out that my body was fighting a bad infection which the doctor thought was food poisoning. So after waiting for my prescriptions and re-hydration fluid, we all hopped in a cab back to the hostel where I climbed into bed and didn't come out of for three days. I ventured out yesterday for an hour and was back in bed as soon as I got back. I had set my goal a bit too high. I am feeling worlds better today, just a bit weak and tired, but I expect to be as good as normal by Wednesday. I hope so because we have another human rights talk on Friday that I have to be in tip top shape for!


Speaking of which...the human rights talk we did last Wednesday went really well. In fact, I think I may have found my calling. I was a bit nervous beforehand because I never was much of a "kids person" (except for my adorable, brilliant and beautiful neice!) and also because I didn't know how I would do with the whole presentation thing. Doing a board room presentation is much different than talking about rape and domestic violence to a bunch of kids who experience this on a daily basis. I did the introduction and as I began my entire being was engulfed in a wave of adrenaline. During my piece outlining the rest of our talk, I actually felt a knot in my throat when touching upon the women's rights issues. I couldn't believe I was actually in Africa, talking about issues I am vehemently passionate about to a group of young people that may have gotten some of what I was saying. It wasn't all about the feeling of me presenting to them, but more about getting them to think and question and talk to each other. It was fun to initiate a thought and ask facilitating questions and then sitting back and listening to what came out of them. I am now seriously considering going back to school for my PhD. I wouldn't want to teach English or Geography to young students. I'm thinking more about being a college professor in the human rights genre. Being able to inspire young adults to think outside the box, to travel, to volunteer, or even to do research abroad would be amazing. I'm not familiar with the American higher education situation so if you know anyone who I should talk to or things I should be doing please let me know. I'm sure it's not a simple process so I still plan to come back a get a job but I am definitely going to move forward with this. Being able to be as loud and as passionate as I want in that medium is a perfect fit for me. And actually being able to possibly inspire people is a dream come true! Not to mention, and I'm sure most of you'll appreciate, me being my loud passionate self away from the dinner table!

So, here's to more good times (and no more bad) in Moshi!

This blog entry is dedicated to Amy and Ren from Hostel Hoff who went out of their way to take of me and held my hand through the whole stool sample trauma - all the way up to the bathroom door anyway! Definitely friends for life! Thanks girls - I owe you!!