"Malaria"

It has certainly been an interesting past few weeks. Lilu left for Nepal which means that I am now the project manager for the time he is away. A few days after his departure I became quite ill with apparently ’malaria’, though I’m fairly certain they call everything malaria. Myself, along with four others from my office, were all diagnosed with malaria (though the other cases were actually malaria). I was throwing up, sweating, cold, diarrhea, dizzy, weak, all of the good stuff. My housekeeper, Rita, who has became like a mother to me, walked me to the car to go to the clinic as I vomited all over her shoes and her clean floor. She stayed the night with me to make sure I was okay. I could barely keep myself sitting upright in the clinic as they tested me for malaria and gave me a bunch of pills for which I had to trust. I ran into my work colleague at the clinic who also had malaria and typhoid. And, well, that’s Africa for you!

My bosses from Kampala and Copenhagen came to Moroto for a field visit where I had to host them, after I had slept 2 hours the night before from being ill, on top of which my love told me he was getting married, over text message, and that it was time to move on… It seems to me that life really just happens all at once. It truly is just a divine comedy. Now I just look at it all and think: “Okay Sara, well this is how it is, you can laugh and continue on, or pretend like you have some sort of control in this matter and dwell over it.” So, I tried to laugh, and found that in the end, I made a great friend with my housekeeper, and feel an overall sense of relief from all of these events. It’s hard, but if we can take a step outside of an overwhelming or hurtful situation, breathe, and understand that ‘thy will be done’, a sense of clarity and calmness arises.

I am in Kampala now to meet with a colleague from South Sudan and have been having a bit of a party, meeting up with people I barely know for dinner, going bowling, getting my hair done, massages, it’s been great! I realize how much I appreciate the small things now. I flew over with an airline called MAF, it was almost a helicopter with five rows. The view was spectacular. We flew over the Nile and were able to see all the little houses and villages. I had a truly truly happy time despite the turbulence from the rain storm and my general fear of flying. After my adventures over the past few years, I am left wondering if I will ever go back to a more permanent existence in the West. 

That’s it for now!