Busy week

This past week has gone by so fast. I spent the Monday through Wednesday at the refugee camp and successfully completed a couple interviews. I ran into several coordination challenges with finding interpreters, finding a private spaces, and getting used to everything starting about an hour after I planned. I met with the Malawi Red Cross Society in the camp and I plan to go back to interview some other people (will post about that at some point). I also attended a discussion on gender equality with a group of refugees, led by Kat Banyard who wrote a book called The Equality Illusion (http://www.katbanyard.org/the-equality-illusion).

Every Tuesday, there is a large market in the camp. I bought some 

fabric and will hopefully have something made before I leave. 

I didn’t feel quite right during the day on Wednesday and by the time we drove back to Lilongwe, I was pretty miserable. I was very nauseous and had stomach pains. I’ll spare the details of the other issues I was having.  After tossing, turning, and more vomiting than I realized was possible, I felt a little better but was still pretty out of it.

I went to the doc on Thursday because I planned to leave town on Friday and I wanted to be sure I didn’t have anything serious. I waited for about 2 hours to see a doctor from Alabama. He was very thorough and said it was probably something I ate and that I would be fine to go on my weekend trip. He prescribed me with anti-nausea medication, cipro, and immodium. As we finished up, he said he would pray for me. I thanked him and started walking away. He stopped me and said he wanted to pray for me right then, so I awkwardly sat down again. He held my hand and he prayed for my health and that I enjoy my time in Malawi. He also said that even though he gave me medication, it was up to God to make me healthy. The visit and meds cost about $20. I went home and took one of the anti-nausea meds. He said it would make me a little sleepy…I ended up sleeping 17 hours.

His prayers were answered. I was so nervous I wouldn’t get to go on my weekend getaway to Zambia for a Safari. Although the 8-hour drive was a bit torturous with the way I was feeling, it was totally worth it. Safari blog post will come soon!

Countryside of Zambia