An Honest Blog

OK, so maybe, "An Honest Blog" wasn't the best title for this entry because I am honest in all my blog entries. However, this entry is called 'Honest' because I am going to talk about touchy-feely stuff like my feeling so if you aren't a person that likes that sort-of thing (like Dad), you might want to skip this entry.

When I left for Potika I was still feeling somewhat ill with typhoid. While I was not feeling the best, I joking told Logan, "If I get sick with a weird tropical disease again I am going home!" The main symptom I had was not feeling hungry. It was a struggle to eat even a few bites at every meal. However, after a few days in Potika and towards the end of my intensive 2 week antibiotic regimen, I started to feel much better. I began to eat normal amounts of food and my headaches were gone. I was still slightly weak and I had a strong suspicion that my immune system had taken a toll during its battle with typhoid. Unfortunately, these suspicions were confirmed when I developed a strange fungal infection on my neck. I think that the fungal infection came from picking up small, hungry, diseased and dirty children in the IDP camp, but there is no way to know for certain. It could also be sleeping on a dirt floor and bathing irregularly.


Cute Child or Disease Vector?

A picture of the neck fungal infection grossness. The central large sore hurt quite a bit. I showed my neck to a health officer in Potika and she said it was a bacterial infection so I put triple antibiotic cream on it for several days under which the sore increased exponentially. Then I showed my neck to a Uganda physician in Kitgum and he said that he didn't know exactly what it was because he wasn't used to looking at white people's skin, but that his best guess was a fungal infection. So I started to use apply an antifungal cream several times a day.

We Logan and I arrived in Kampala, my neck hadn't really improved much so I went to an 'expensive' private hospital. The doctor that saw me is sitting in the above picture. He thought it was a fungal infection as well and prescribed another antifungal cream. How much was it to see some of the best physicians Uganda has to offer? The physician's consultation was $1.50 and purchasing the fungal cream was $3.00. Perhaps slightly less than it would be in the United States.

While in Kampala I faced a decision of what to do with the 2 weeks off I had before staring my class in Nairobi in July. I had an invitation to work in a hospital in Tanzania for a couple weeks. I also could have visited Ethiopia for a couple weeks or done countless other activities. However, I realized that I had been pushing my self too much during the time in Uganda and that really need to rest. I decided the infection with the latest disease might be an indication that I should let my immune system recover and eat a balanced diet and get plenty of sleep. I briefly contemplated just going home (I have an airline ticket that I can change the return date on for only the $50 change fee). However, I really didn't want to miss out on taking the Tulane Kenya Class. The class sounds amazing (studying the Kenyan Health system by visiting hospitals and NGOs all over the country) and I need the credits to graduate with my MPH. So I decided to return to house where the Columbian nuns and priests live and just rest for two weeks. This might not be the most exotic use of my time in Nairobi, but I think it was the wisest.

Here is a picture of one of the nuns I am staying with. Her name is Dora and she is actually Guetamala, but she joined the Columbian mission. Everyone here speaks Spanish except for me, but they like to practice their English with me so I don't get left out of the conversations too much. There are 6 other nuns, 5 priests, 2 brothers, and my friend Lucia who I met in Tanzania at the language school. This house is such a restful place. Everyone is really nice and they eat a balanced diet with raw fruits and vegetables and they pray twice a day. Something about staying with a group of people that has dedicated their lives to serving God and the poor is really peaceful. They know I am not a nun and that I am not Catholic, but they seem happy to let me stay here anyway.

Some people have asked what I have learned during this trip. I gave this answer with Rick Wood for his article in Stanwood/Camano News and I thought I would share it with you'll as well:

Perhaps one of the most important (and seemingly obvious) lessons I have learned is that there is a cost of living "like the people." This may seem strange, but back in the States I always imagined living like people as this really glorious thing and that I could do it with little or no negative consequences. However, living like the people: eating rice and beans or corn meal for every meal, not getting the proper balanced diet, using a pit latrine where you have to stand in other people's fecal material, sleeping on the floor, bathing with cold water from a basin, etc. have the consequences of discomfort (I was pretty much ready for this), but also the consequence of disease. Typhoid is probably the worst disease I have had since chickenpox when I was seven years old, but it was payment for the opportunity to help in a very impoverished part of Africa and live like the local people. I wouldn't trade the experience of living with the people for a disease-free and comfort-filled trip. However, illness is a hard price that you have to pay for the experience of living like the people and I think I will try to take better care of myself in my future African adventures.