Day 12- The Joys of Africa...
I slept in today after the big day of soul searching that I had yesterday, that is a tiring thing to do. Mom and I are going to Jinja today to get ready for our big adventure tomorrow. I arranged to get mom to go down the While Nile in a Topo Duo, that way she can see the Nile without having to stress out about swimming the Nile. Brilliant idea, if you ask me, Mom is pretty stoked too.
We had a slow morning but during lunch the action ramped up. Nick, one of the Brits started feeling a bit ill, I took one look at him and noticed he had a pretty big infection in his toe. He had not been feeling good for about a day and today it was getting worse throughout the day. His foot was warm to the touch going about halfway up his calf, was nauseated and had a fever. Myself and a doctor whom is living on the island swooped into action and started an IV on him, gave him fluid and got names of the antibiotics that he needed. Nick already had plans to go into Jinja for the day with us and now he was going to be laid up getting IV antibiotics.
I’m not sure if anyone realizes this but, you don’t go to hospitals in Uganda, in fact, avoid it all at cost. So we got him all settled and after another massive rain storm, we were off and heading to Jinja. The roads here are all red clay and amazingly slippery when they are wet so that made for an interesting drive in the start. I went to the pharmacy, where amazingly, you can buy pretty much anything you want with no questions asked. We got to Nile River Explorers and got Nick all set up with some antibiotics. I finally got to talk to my amazing boyfriend for the first time in two weeks and it was awesome to hear his voice, it was like a breath of fresh air. He knows what to say to keep my mind in the game and working towards what my larger goal is.
After administering some medications, Mom and I had a celebratory beer at the Nile River Explorers bar which is the bar I was at ten years ago when I got caught drinking and was kicked out of World Class. I don’t think I will be getting kicked out of Africa this time.