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Fern in Tanzania
I'm afraid we can no longer be together, it's me not you…
Or at least that is what I'm currently attempting to tell the parasites I've picked up in the last week with antibiotics! Its been a very odd week!
But first to begin with the good stuff! Last Saturday the school competed in a sports day event at an international school in Arusha. Attending was six schools, all of them except ours were international schools. We started the day all piling into minibuses and driving along the roads of Tanzania with music blasting out and with a large supply of bubblegum going round the bus. I was put in charge of the Under 14 Girls who were competing. For some of the nine this was their first sports competition out with the school. I have to say I felt the responsibility when handed with a slightly complicated timetable of events and nine students whose names I didn't know who expected me to get them to the right events at the right time. Somehow though we made it work and they managed to attend everything (I also learnt another 9 names!) Arriving at the school the contrast between their grounds and ours was striking. The International School of Moshi has very western classrooms, running water that is already filtered and you can drink straight from the tap, an outdoor swimming pool and play park equipment. Many of the students parents came to support them also. Our school by comparison arrived and were handed bananas and dry bread for breakfast which kept them going until evening (other schools students were wandering round with hotdogs, pizza and ice cream and had large packed lunch boxes supplied), our students also didn't have the luxury of parent supporters. That being said I wouldn't change the school or the students for the world. They were complaint free, supported and cheered for each other and were enthusiastic the whole day. They are also pretty good at running! Unfortunately I had to leave the event early as I was feeling far from well having been ill in the morning and spent the whole day out in the sun with not much shade or water.
We arrived home that night to the sad news that one of our students had died. She had not been well for a while and had seen a specialist at a hospital. I had spoken to her only on the Wednesday before as we shared a bus into Arusha, as she went to the hospital and I to a meeting, so it was a huge shock. As a result of the news the school has closed until Thursday with the funeral on Wednesday. Exactly what she had been ill from doesn't seem to be exactly known but has been a big shock to everyone.
Sunday I woke up and really did not feel well, however I tried to carry on getting on with things which only lasted until mid morning when I had to return to the house and bed. A rather miserable 24 hours followed and then I had a phone call telling me I had to go to the hospital to get checked to see if it was anything serious. Another volunteer was also going in and so we were able to get a taxi together.
The hospital was an interesting experience! You have to pay money before anything happens and then keep paying money throughout your visit. I was weighed and discovered I've lost a lot of weight since I arrived, however this of course means once I'm well again I can eat nutella and anything else sugary it is possible to get here guilt free! After a morning and part of the afternoon in the hospital waiting and seeing different people, I was told that I had e.coli, another parasite and had probably had a large reaction to lactose (I had accidentally eaten quite a bit last week). I was prescribed medication and came home and went to sleep. On waking up however I looked at the medicines and found one of them to be extremely dodgy looking. It was full of spelling mistakes, said it had only been tested on rats and said it didn't know how it worked- not what you want to see on a medicine package when your ill! Luckily, one of the volunteers here has an Aunt and Uncle who have lived in Tanzania for twenty years, they got hold of their doctor who rang me on Tuesday morning. He told me not to touch the medicine, that the diagnosis sounded very doubtful and then gave me an over the phone consultation. He decided I probably had one of two things and so gave me a recommended course of medicine for both. There are no prescriptions here and you just walk into a pharmacy and ask for things and so a volunteer who was shopping in town was able to pick it up for me. Most of my time since has been spent in bed, feeling like death warmed up, attempting to eat the occasional boiled potato or flat fizzy drink and occasionally managing to read a bit. However, hopefully all shall be back to normal soon and I will stop feeling like a washing machine with a hangover!
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