Training Continues, Illness Begins

As the weeks of training continue on, life here is beginning to seem more like a reality than a trip. Routines are established, friendships are built, habits are formed, new things are learned both at home and at training, and the days between the present and our departure from home grow more numerous. It no longer gives my heart a small pang to wake up (slightly frozen), stare about myself, and think: “This is my life now. There is no going back.” It is merely another fact of life, like the roosters crowing, the sun rising, and the bus stopping for cows to cross the road.

This week, I have missed a few days of training. On Friday, I started to feel ill, and noticed that I was getting an upset stomach. On Saturday, I had little appetite and diarrhea. Sunday continued those symptoms in the morning, with a fever starting in the midafternoon. When I took my temperature at 2:30pm on Sunday, it was 101. I took some non-aspirin (African Tylenol) and went to bed. I awoke at 3:15am in some pretty intense pain and sprinted to the latrine. I took my temperature, and it was 102.8. I took more non-aspirin and waited for morning, wishing I had a cell phone to call for help. I fell back asleep and woke up the next morning with my fever down to 100 but absolutely no energy. I dragged myself to training, where I was promptly sent to the Peace Corps medical center in Mbabane.

Day, our absolutely wonderful medical officer, took some blood, did a brief exam, and diagnosed me with a bacterial infection. She put me on an antibiotic and an antinausea medication. I promptly fell asleep, and did not awaken until dinnertime (Monday). I did not eat, but merely went back to sleep. I woke up long enough to take a shower that evening (running water and heat exist at our med center), and then slept until the next morning. Although Tuesday morning found me weak, I felt better. Since most of my symptoms weren’t better (the exception being fever), they decided to hold me another night. I slept much of Tuesday and then today, Wednesday (17 July), I woke up with most symptoms gone and some of my strength back. I’m still tired and weaker than I was going in, but I am far stronger than I was just a few days ago and my appetite has returned in full force. Getting sick is part of going to a new country with different endemic diseases, and we really do have the best medical care available to us to handle that transition.

The med hut, which is really not a hut at all, has heat, wifi, a microwave, a refrigerator, catered meals, a flush toilet, a giant bathtub with a shower, two pillows on the bed, loads of blankets, unlimited hot tea, and the most caring medical staff imaginable. I will have to catch up on everything that I have missed during training, but I certainly haven’t been slumming it while I was busy being sick and feeling sorry for myself. I am much better emotionally as well, as I got to get away from my situation and reassess, meditate, and sleep on all my problems. Getting sick was honestly more of a blessing than a curse, although it’s a blessing I don’t need again for a while!

On another note, as routines here become established, they become less of a novelty and a fascination to me and more of a reality. I stop seeing things as new and exciting as I acclimate, and that may mean that I don’t write about something that some of you are curious about. If there are any questions that you have or anything in particular you want me to post on, please let me know! I could use the inspiration, and it will keep me looking at Swaziland with a fresh light in my eyes. My dad has requested a post about Siswati, the language spoken here, so maybe I’ll get started on that one soon.