Still Sick

Today, as mentioned above, was originally going to be back at St. Mary’s, but I woke up this morning and was extremely sick; I still have an awful cough, sore throat and stuffy nose from London, my feet are still swollen from the flight, plus are numb now, and I am so tired from the nine hour time difference that I couldn’t even get up. I am wondering if my cold isn’t going away because I am so jet-lagged, that my body hasn’t had the energy enough to fight it off. And the heat here is incredible in comparison to the Seattle and London weather that I am coming from. In the hospitals, we have to wear jeans, closed toe shoes, a dressy top and our lab coats with no air conditioning, and this might be fine for natives, but it is practically killing me. I don’t think that is adding to my case. So, I am home resting today in hopes that I will feel better tomorrow. Dr. Kahn, our medical director, might pay me a visit tonight just to make sure that I am okay.

It started raining last night! I couldn’t believe it, but I was hoping that it would cool down the weather around here; negative. It is still extremely hot, with some added hot rain now. Not the most fun I’ve had. In Africa, it is customary to have a maid if you have money enough for one. My family does, and she is the sweetest girl. She comes three times a week, and has been here the last two days. She doesn’t speak much English, but her nature is very caring, and she has this smile that makes you happy simply by looking at her. My family also just recently purchased a computer, and a man was here setting it up this morning. I’m not sure if they are going to have internet or not. It would certainly be very nice if they got it; it would make getting online a thousand times easier for me. It is quite a challenge thus far. I also have four huge mosquito (I think?) bites on my left arm all by my elbow. They are the hugest bites I have ever gotten in my life, and are by far the most irritating itchy things ever. It has been maybe three days and they are still just as big, and just as itchy. I am trying my hardest not to touch them; Zola gave me some itch cream that worked a tiny bit, but I know that if I scratch them, it will take three times as long for them to go away. I am trying my best! I also just realized that I may not have said much about the house I am staying in. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, dining room and garage. It is a good sized house, with quite a large front and back yard. The front yard has an amazing view and beautiful trees and flowers all around. The backyard has steps proceeding up the hill that lead to another house that they own and rent out (or ‘let’ out as the South African and British say), and a swimming pool. It is unkept however, and they refer to it as a pond rather than a swimming pool. The ‘entrance’ to the backyard is with one of those rectangular structures that you find at weddings (I cannot think of the word!) that is covered with a plant that wraps around the top like vines, and grows flowers that hang down. It is very pretty. This morning I went to try and charge the phone they give me to use during the program, and I tried to plug the charger in the wall, and apparently I still needed to use my adapter (you would think not, right?) because the socket ‘blew’ up with sparks and it seared one of the prongs of my charger useless is my guess. Woops. I need to go get another charger today, but I am scared to use that wall plug again. I don’t want it to destroy my adapter; that would be horrible! But it is the only plug in my room. Hmmm