Have I gotten
sick? You bet. It all started when I was in India. Jarrod & I
both expected that I would get sick (not many people escape India
without getting something apparently), but he helped me to do
everything that I could to avoid it. I brushed my teeth using
bottled water, washed my hands or used hand sanitizer before every
meal, and tried to eat only at restaurants recommended by someone we
knew or that were listed in a travel guide. It wasn't until my third
week of travel that I caught anything at all.
We took many
modes of transport while in India, but lucky for us this day we had
randomly decided to take a car. Our taxi was going to drive us just
a few short hours from Kovalum to Varkala (or “Barfkala as I aptly
renamed it), a very popular tourist trap on the Western shore of
India. We left shortly after lunch, and I started feeling nauseous
immediately. Usually when I start feeling sick, I can calm my mind,
concentrate and force myself to hold it together, but nothing was
stopping this beast this time. I had already mentioned to Jarrod that I was feeling
kind of off, but this time I turned to him in the backseat and
calmly said “I think we might need to pull over”. He paused for
a moment, and then interpreted my sentence into its correct meaning:
“pull the f&!@ over now!” He asked our driver to do so, and
we made it JUST in time for me lose my load out the side of the car,
a sight for all to see. This continued every hour, on the hour,
during the rest of our taxi drive and for the remainder of the day
once we arrived. Every time I threw up, I prayed to God it was the
last time. I'm fairly certain I've never been more violently ill in
my life.
Having been so
sick in India, I was confident that I would be in the clear in
Africa...that it would be all out of my system. But, to no avail.
My first week in Tanzania, all of us co-workers went out to a bar for
some drinks and food, and to be a good sport (against my intuition),
I tried the goat. Just one very small piece, but that was enough. I
threw up all night long and since then, have been almost strictly
vegetarian during my time here in Tanzania...and have yet to get sick
again.
Everyone takes
their turn, whether its vomiting, diarrhea or injuries. For example, my
co-worker Linda sprained her ankle running in the hills here and was
on crutches when I first arrived, and a few weeks ago Helena had a
spark shoot out of her arm when lightening hit our office. Exciting
stuff. And then, there's Shannon. A couple of weeks after I arrived
here, my co-worker Shannon started noticing a bump on her foot. She thought that it was just a wart,
but it kept growing and getting darker and darker by the day. She
asked us what we thought it was, but no one knew. When conditions didn't improve, she finally went to see
the doctor, and found out that a chigger had buried itself in her
foot. She most likely got it out during one of our Route Week
visits, and was criticized for wearing flip flops -not closed-toed shoes- in the
mud. She had to have it dug out of her foot with a knife, and as bad
as that sounds, it was even worse when they opened her up to find
that it had started laying eggs in her skin...which also had to be
dug out. Needless to say, for weeks we were all thoroughly examining
our feet nightly, paranoid and nervous that we would share the same
fate.
I, so far, have
been very, very lucky. I get flea bites on a regular basis, but they
are VERY minimal compared to those of several of my co-workers (some
have huge rashes and scars covering their bodies from the severity of
the bites). And only this week have I managed to injure myself. On
Monday, I was carrying a huge duffle bag up the hill from our house
to the office and I tweaked my hip. Not sure what I did, but it hurt
like hell. Lucky for me, it repaired itself within a few days, and I
was good as new...just in time for me to get tripped up in my
mosquito net Thursday as I was exiting my bed, so that I could
gracefully fall and face plant myself on the concrete floor of my
bedroom. Good Morning Africa!
So...what am I
doing to stay healthy? Well no matter how busy or lazy I feel, I
make time to exercise. We go for hikes in the hills behind our
house, or walk into town and back...which takes 40 minutes each way.
Shannon leads yoga class once a week, and I do the same with hip hop.
On top of that, Hilary has some pretty incredible work-out DVDs, so
we get yoked with Jillian Michaels in the bedroom, using rocks from
the hillside as weights. If solitary confinement in prison is
anything like the isolation is out here in Murgwanza, I am confident
that if I went to jail I would be like those inmates that do body
building all the time, and would come out looking more ripped than I
had been in 10 years!
In addition,
I've been taking my malaria medication (which I hate).
About half of my co-workers are not taking it, but I don't think its
worth the risk...so I continue on. Also, I finally got my care
package from my Dad this week, which contained lots of things to keep
me healthy and sane. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see
Flintstone Gummie Vitamins in my life!
And...then
there's mental health. All of us “imports” out here do the best
that we can with all of the tools in our belt to keep ourselves
healthy and balanced, no matter what the day presents to us. We plan
game nights together, special events (such as a Secret Santa exchange
we had the other night – my idea, thank you very much), and most of
all are just there to keep each other company. With the phones and
internet working erratically and irregularly, it is very hard for all
of us to communicate with our friends and family back home, so when
someone reaches to the bottom of their barrel, we help to pick them
back up. We remind each other why we're here, and what we're trying
to accomplish, both personally and professionally, in the name of
helping others.
This holiday
season, my request is that you dig deep – into your heart, into
your mind, or into your pockets if you prefer, to give something to
someone else in need who truly needs it. Without the love,
generosity and compassion of others, this life would be a lot more
difficult for all of us. Try it - give just a little this Christmas
season, and I think you'll be surprised to find how much/what you'll
get back in return.
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