Day 18 - Sickness Overcomes

I have tried so hard while I’ve been out of the US to stay healthy by keeping my hands out of my mouth and off my face, making sure the food I ate was properly prepared, and doing everything physically possible to keep myself from getting sick. Well, I finally got a bug and it has been extremely unpleasant. We got up early yesterday and left for Seya at 7:50am. Around 8:40am after standing under a roof as the rain poured from the sky, a feeling in my stomach caught me by surprise. It was a sharp pain, one of twisting and pulling, I couldn’t quite pinpoint the pain nor it’s origin. This lasted basically all day. I tried to work through the pain while I was at Hope by hauling bricks and doing what I could to stay busy, it only worked for about 30 minutes and then I was in pain again. As the night went on, the pain got less and less. The pain comes in waves, even at this point. It will get really bad and I’ll hurt really bad and then it will float away for a while. As the night went on, the pain was less and less.

Our day was spent at Hope Children’s Home. We were to check on the Adobe stove, continue work on chicken coop, and start the pig pen project. When we got there, it began to rain, this was at 8:20 am or so. We waited for the rain to let up for about 2 hours, again I couldn’t believe how much water had fallen from the sky. The adobe stove wasn’t dry yet, in fact, it was still quite wet. We were unable to take the forms off knowing that if we did the thing would likely collapse. Kennedy told us that he had put water on top of the cement we had laid for the the top layer. I couldn’t figure out why he decided this was necessary. The water he poured went down the main hole (burner) in the front and saturated that clay, so we’re not quite sure how the rest of the stove is moisture wise. We are also unsure whether or not we should start a fire within to get the drying process up on it’s feet. Ashley was afraid that by doing so, we might interfere with the natural drying of the clay and cause cracking which would not be good. We decided not to make a fire, we will just have to be patient with the humid air here.

We formed an assembly line of sorts with volunteers and kids from the school to move bricks from one area to another. We needed bricks for the foundation of the pig pen that was down about 75 feet from the chicken coop. The line worked well and we moved 200-300 bricks in about 30 minutes. The kids are incredibly strong, not surprisingly. They are used to working everyday, especially taking water cans down to the now piped natural water well and hiking them uphill to the house. All the kids are well disciplined, know how to work, and love to work next to us muzungus. The leaders have mentioned to us that by working with the kids, they see that white people really can work and that life IS about work. It’s great to have such an impact on such a small matter as moving bricks from one end of the land to another.

We stayed at Hope until 1:30pm. We decided as a group to have lunch at Hope again, again I was impressed and the food was great. I was weary at first, not knowing WHO would prepare the food and just HOW it would happen exactly... sanitation was obviously on my mind. Luckily, everything they prepare here is cooked well. We had beans, rice, matooke (plantain), pineapple, mango, cabbage and a coke. I loved it, the flavor was great and I was full when finished. It cost us 2000 shillings for lunch there, which covers the food, drink (600 shillings), and the labor of the cooks. So, really, we got FULL on US $1, pretty amazing. Every time I eat I imagine just how little of our money provides so much food for them. It makes me sick to think about going out to dinner and spending $15 dollars on a plate. That would feed a child for over a month at the school.

We returned home, my stomach was still cramping like never in life. I was trying to contain myself and relax as we made out way home. I took my shoes off and went straight for my bed and slept. Laying down felt really good but didn’t solve the whole problem. Sleeping helped dull the pain. While I was sleeping, Edith came in the room and somehow I noticed and woke up. She was there to ask for my clothes to wash them, my heart sank. Here is this girl that all she can think about is serving us, it makes uncomfortable to a point, but then realize that she loves being around us and just wants to be a part of who we are and what we are doing. She has one of the sweetest spirits I have ever met.

I slept for a good 3-4 hours on and off. Dinner time came around and I was still in bed. Many people from the group including Jackie, Ashley, and Lesli came in to check on me and see how I was doing, I really appreciated that. Jackie asked me if I needed ANYTHING, she was so willing to help me get over being sick. She eventually got me a 2 liter sprite to help settle my stomach. Tori, bless her heart, brought me two Pepsi’s, I had been craving one all yesterday, and a nice note that wished me to get well. I absolutely love my group, everybody is so caring, loving, fun, and just awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better group.

I felt the best after dinner during FHE and watching a movie. FHE was fun, we played a game that involved asking questions not normally asked to see how different people think. I believe the name of the game was “Loaded Questions.” It was fun because a lot of the time the questions were just downright hilarious and the answers we got from people made us laugh. Afterwards, we set up my computer and watched “The Invasion.” I had seen it once before, I think it’s a pretty good movie, I like it better the second time around. My group was pretty stoked to find out that I had brough 65 movies, almost enough to last us one per night... :-)