BAD MOVE
on New Adventures in Ethiopia (Ethiopia), 03/Mar/2009 09:02, 34 days ago
Today I woke up and headed to the office as planned. Before I did so, I made myself some eggs and tea and had breakfast thinking I might as well make use of all the food I have. BAD MOVE. .Much of the day I spent online, doing research, catching up on emails, writing proposals and the like. Going to the field definitely brings the needs of people to the fore and gives a new boost of inspiration to do the boring office stuff with more enthusiasm. .In the afternoon, I put my foot down and claimed that we should instill some organization in the office, have an agenda of what is on our plate and systematically work through approaching donors and pursuing new ones. Having made the suggestion, I spent the afternoon coming up with strategies and gathering information to get a clear picture of what CISO is up to at this given time. .Towards the afternoon, I was starting to feel my body getting weak and by around 3pm, I was already anxious to get home. I knew I was getting ill I just didn’t know if it was a cold or something else. By the time I got home and finally relaxed, my sickness got worse and worse and I got very weak. I felt nauseas, had really bad diarrhea, felt feverish and generally was really really sick. I spent most of the evening in bed and at intervals; I got extremely intimate with my toilet bowl. .Oh wow…so in the morning (Thursday) I called the office and said that there is no way I can work and that I am ill. The day seemed so long because I had been ill all through the night. Eventually at around noon, Gezahen called and told me that he will be taking me to the hospital. For obvious reasons Iinitially rejected the offer but he insisted that I should get checked out just incase. So he came to pick me up and we went to the clinic where I was seen quite quickly. The health facilities here are basic to say the least and I am VERY weary of using their equipment. I did take my own kit with myown needles and gloves and all sorts just in case. Luckily, none of it was needed. .The doctor did some basic tests and told me I have some kid of bacterial tummy bug from something I ate and gave me oral rehydration salts and prescribed some antibiotics. I basically stayed home all day and felt like pure shit. Literally and metaphorically. LOL. Now as an aside– this sickness experience taught me some thing. And although it may seem that the lesson is not to trust the food here…that wasn’t it. I will have to say that the lesson was that I know how celebrities feel. .Im gonna call this part‘I KNOW HOW CELEBRITIES FEEL’Ok…so I feel like shit, I look like shit, Im dehydrated and I want to literally crawl into a ball and wake up when Im better…I am walking to the clinic and as usual everyone notices me because I’m a different color or Im a ferenji. Im REALLY over the skin color thing. Everyone wants to say hi and throw some comment. .I just realized that this is how celebrities must feel. Everywhere they go, everyone wants a piece of them totally regardless of what’s going on with them. Even as I was waiting for the doctor sitting on the bench, one young guy was taking a picture of me with his camera. I wanted to sock him. As I came out of the lab, some guy stood in my way and said ‘can I help you?’ and I said ‘NO! I DON’T NEED HELP’, as I walkedhome a group of soccer players basically were coming in my path and were all hollering ‘hey you! Please talk to me!’ – It was crazy. See when you’re feeling ok…you think its funny or you let it slide but today I realized that you might be having something going on and you just want to be left alone and you cant. With that said, I wouldn’t want to be famous. It’s awful. Its not nice being recognized by EVERYONE and being stared at. Yikes…no thanks. .