Last night was my first reminder that Africa isn’t all fun and games. I spent the first half of my evening in the bathroom vomiting every ten minutes and my second half of the evening in the hospital. A rapid test confirmed that I do not have malaria but did indicate elevated white blood cell counts. They gave me some medication for the nausea and sent me home since there was not a lab technician in to do any further testing. I managed to sleep through most of the night until I went back to the hospital this morning for more blood work. After almost two hours of waiting in the lobby talking with a Masai man I had another finger prick and they found I have a bacterial infection, most likely from something I ate. So, I think I’ll be eating somewhere other than the cafeteria for a while. The vomiting has stopped which is good because if I were to need the bathroom right now I would have to fight off a troop of vervet monkeys that have decided to spend their afternoon in there.
On a lighter note, this weekend involved a lot of exploring. Friday night we went into the market and got dinner at a restaurant, later returning to the dorm for a little dance party. Saturday morning we headed out of town to Pugu Hills; an area of primary forest preserved by a Dutch woman who runs a little resort up in the hills. We spent the day hiking and swimming in the hilltop pool (which had water gardens surrounding it) overlooking the forest and city in the background.
Sunday was my first trip off campus with a small group of people, which was fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, I love our group, but traveling as a group of 21 students is a little cumbersome. Four of us (there was supposed to be a fifth, but Shahid got a bacterial infection that day) went to Mbudya Island; a marine reserve just off of the coast. We took two dala dalas (something like a large van which up to thirty people will often cram into) and a bajaji (a three wheeled vehicle powered by the equivalent of a lawn mower engine) that left us at a sand dune with two wrecked sailboats. We told him we needed to go to the Silver Sands Hotel, and apparently this was close enough. The hotel turned out to be just a short walk from where we were dropped off. The bartender at the hotel then called us a boat, which turned out to be a little fishing boat with a 10 horse power motor to take us to the island. Midway to the island the boat took a sudden turn and started heading in a different direction. The driver could tell we were nervous and he told me “relax, we’re just getting fish”. Eventually we came upon a few fishermen in dugout canoes with cotton sails. Our driver took a bag out off the sailboat and dumped its contents into our boat. Inside the bag were a couple dozen of some roughly sunfish sized fish that I didn’t recognize, a handful of squid, and a clownfish. The driver picked the fish he wanted and gave the rest back to the fisherman. We ate them for lunch.
The snorkeling at Mbudya turned out to be incredible. The first thing we saw when we got in the water was a pair of lionfish. I’ve never seen such nice of coral. In the Caribbean the corals are generally shades of tan where as here there were bright blues, pinks, greens, and every color in between. Everywhere you looked there were huge anemones and in them several species of clownfish. There were also several giant clams, each about a foot and a half long and shades of bright blue, green, and red. The most exciting thing I saw however was an octopus cruising along the eel grass.
In other news, BEDBUGS! Several of us have them, including myself. They don’t itch at least but they do leave unsightly clusters of red bumps where ever they bight you. Oh well, nothing we can do about them.
Well, I think that’s all for now.
Baadaye,
Mat
