Raging River of Death and other stories.

Hello Everyone!

So in my last blog I told y’all that you wounldn’t hear from me for two weeks because I was going to Kapchorwa for ten days. Well, I went to Kapchorwa, and I met the family that I would be living with for a week, and they were great! So excited to have me in their home and so eager to feed me and love me! They are farmers that grow bananas to make matoke, maize (a kind of corn), coffee, and dairy cows. It was going to be a great week to work with them and really learn about rural lifestyle.

However, as you know I have been waging war against parasitic armies for the past week or so. Well, I thought I was winning… but then I started to feel very sick while I was with my family in Kapchorwa. By the time we got to eating dinner (around 8 that night) all the food they had graciously fed me just came right back out. And I mean all of it. I felt defeated. “The parasites have won,” I was thinking to myself. My family let me go to bed and I spent a restless night crying and praying and hoping my stomach would magically be healed by the morning and I could go on with the week. But that didn’t work. I woke up at dawn, journeyed to the pit-latrine (an unsuccessful venture as my body wasn’t given anything to digest the day before), and then came back to room and threw up again. Not that there was anything left in me to actually throw up.

So throughout the day my program directors came a few times to check on my and try and figure out what to do. But in my heart I knew I needed to leave and go get healthy somewhere! By late afternoon I was packed up and in the van, heading to the hotel where my directors were staying. The next day I journeyed back to Mukono to see a doctor and let my body rest for the week.

The good news of all of this is that the parasites are all dead! Hurray! However, the medication I was taking was so strong that it hurt my digestive system. That combined with not really eating all last week (due to the nausea I experienced from the medication) made me physically and emotionally crapped out. So I have been in Mukono since Sunday night, and am finally able to eat normally again and actually felt energetic this morning! I feel a little bit wimpy for leaving, but then I remind myself that it is important for me to be healthy in body and soul, and I am finally feeling that! Praise be to God!

So that’s the story for all who wanted it! Please keep praying that I will continue to get strong and healthy, and that parasites flee at the sight of me!!

Here are more pictures of what I have done by myself in Mukono, and to reassure you all that I really am alive and well.

This is the juice I found. I thought it might somehow make me more me again :)

It rained really hard yesterday. This is outside of the building (IMME Quarters) where I spend most of my time,

It was scary!!!!!

That's all for now!

Love to y'all!
Joy