All in all, I'm adjusting very well to my life here. My sentiment from my last post is by no means a lie. This week has had many small challenges that snowballed. As I stated in my last post, my family had not had water for a few days last week, and so on Monday, I was finally able to do laundry. The tap had turned off again, though, so I pulled a jerry-can from the bathroom, one about twice or three times the size of the jerry-can below.
It carries 20 L of water, a little over 5 gallons. Now, I struggle in carrying one gallon of milk in each hand, so obviously this was a lot for me. I took it slow, but I still managed to pull a muscle in my back. Great. With that, walking, sitting, leaning forward...everything except laying down hurt. I took some Tylenol and dealt with it. It was helping with the stress headaches I was having anyways, since we're getting close to LPI (Language Proficiency Interview).
Since getting to my host family, in general, I have not been sleeping as well as I was before. This is likely because my siblings are up late and my mom is up early, but it was really wearing on me this week. As much as my back hurt and as tired as I was, I spent the majority of my free time in my bed. I didn't study much because I just didn't feel like I could focus.
In addition to all of this, or perhaps because of how worn down I was feeling, it has been really wearing on me how much differently I am being treated than the average Ugandan. We have been with our host families, in the community, for three weeks now. We are no longer novelties. And yet when I walk to school, I am honked at, either saying hello to me or asking if I want to go to Fort Portal (which, I'm walking the wrong way for that...). I've had several older women kneel (in practice, it's more like a curtsy) to me this week, a sign of respect for me simply because I'm white. They are the ones who have the life experience. They are the ones who deserve the respect, and yet they kneel to me. It all basically culminated with this article one of my fellow PCVs posted. White privilege is so prevalent all over the world, and it sickens me. I truly want to show as many people as possible that I should not be respected simply for my skin color. It's ludicrous.
With the week weighing heavy on me, I had my language group and trainer over to my host family's house on Saturday for a fun day of cooking one American meal and one Ugandan meal. It went swimmingly! Except...
About halfway through the cooking, I started to feel sick to my stomach. It was completely out of the blue, and I actually ended up throwing up, something that I actively, consciously, avoid. I went to lay down, ate just one pancake from our feast, rested the remainder of the day, slept nearly 12 hours, and still did not feel well in the morning. After breakfast, I thought everything was going to be okay, but I ended up feeling sick again. This time, I got some Pepto Bismol, so I didn't throw up, but I called PCMO (medical), and the doctor requested I go to a clinic. Since I am so new to Uganda and to the area, the doctor sent our language trainer with me, and I was more than thankful. I didn't particularly want to see a doctor, but I went along anyway.
The visit to the local clinic went about as any other doctor's visit goes. Vitals, saw a doctor, then the doctor order some blood work as a diagnostic tool, since my symptoms were very common. Blood drawn, tests run, I wasn't expecting anything to come from it. Then, sitting in the doctor's room, he asked if I was on malaria prophylaxis.
"Yes. I take my medicine every day."
"Well, that's interesting because you have malaria."
"Malaria?!"
I was completely taken aback. I had no idea what to do with this information. As exhausted as I was, my first response was honestly to burst into tears. I held back tears as the doctor talked to the PC doctor about what to do next. I knew what it meant. I paid attention in training. It meant I had to leave language training to go to Kampala until they could prove I don't have malaria. It meant I had to take Coartem to kill the malaria that may or may not be in my system. After a bit of talking back and forth between the two doctors, my language trainer, and I, it was decided that I needed to go to Kampala that night instead of waiting until the morning, much to the credit of my language trainer, so a private was arranged, and I was off!
The private driver gave me the seat which reclines so that I could sleep if I wanted to, a difficult feat due to the speed bumps, but I was definitely able to rest. Once in Kampala, the PC doctor drove me around personally because she didn't think it right to call the driver into work on a Sunday when she lives so close to the office. I had more blood taken, although the lab was closed for the night by that time, which would be used to repeat the malaria test as well as other tests.
Trying to find a room for the night was more difficult than it should have been, but I ended up staying in a hostel. The room I had was shared only with two others that night, but although the room was quiet, the traffic was not. The hardest part of the night, though, was the hot shower that I was so looking forward to was basically scalding hot...
I spent the majority of the day yesterday in the PC office, updating my computer (well, it's still downloading, but you know), updating my phone, updating my virus protection.... I took a nap, and it was generally just a good day. Thankfully, the local hotel had a room for me last night, and so I enjoyed my solitude while listening to the Ugandan news. It literally didn't matter how loud the TV was, though. When I got to the room, I immediately crashed for a two hour nap. In addition to the best night of rest I've had in probably a week and a half, I feel pretty great today. I am having more blood work done, mostly to look at how my white blood cell count is progressing, as it had been very low at the hospital and still low yesterday. Provided these are better, I will be headed back to training tomorrow! Fingers crossed!!
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