March 15 Measuring Strength

march 15,

In my home in Copenhagen, it's measured by who has the best 6 pack. I am so sillly i even try to enter into the competition!!! ( i'm having computer problems, so i'm sorry for the strange font size.....)

I woke up this morning thinking I was pretty great. Going to bed last night I felt horrible from the heat, like I was in shock, nauseous and dizzy thinking I had malaria despite taking my pills but I calmly lay there and fell asleep. I am amazed how calm I am. I was taking a cold shower outside (a bucket bath really) in the dark when frogs jumped on my legs and feet and I didn’t even flinch. That’s not like me. Anyway….when I woke in the morning feeling fine, I thought I could handle anything else. I was tough.

HUH!! I emerged triumphant out of my room and greeted Krisi who was wearing her shirt inside out and looking a wreck. She was bit in the night by a scorpion, her shirt was inside out which is very out of character for her, and she was staggering around trying to get through her chores. She was in a lot of pain so another woman came to help her fetch the water. (I am not allowed to help because it would be seen as a weakness in her if I had to carry water. Her status in the village goes up as the host family and she has to keep up all appearances. I’m learning there’s a lot of gossip and chatter about who’s got

more of what. Typical grown up behavior for all cultures.) I, being so stupid, thought she would die, but all she wanted was a couple of aspirin, which I have a supply of, and she turned her shirt, stood up as straight as she could and continued. (Oh, how I can’t wait to show you her face! She’s lovely!)

Later in the afternoon, after a failed meeting- no one showed up – we were invited to a lunch in another village. As Mbuzi – the translator – and I sat waiting for the food, I commented on what a big house our hostess had. We then began to discuss how no matter what we have in life we always want more. We never reach our goals because we stupidly keep setting them further and further away. This house was the biggest I’ve seen. When the woman arrived with the food, I praised her nice house and you know what she said? ‘It’s not big enough! It should have been bigger.’ Hmmmph. She had the hugest house in the village surrounded by mud huts – she had a corrugated roof and several rooms, her neighbors had one room with thatched roofs. Why are we never satisfied? (I’m sure your imagination configured a modest house with furniture, a kitchen etc. This ‘huge’ house still had mud floors, an indoor fire on the floor for a kitchen, no light, no plumbing, buckets for a sink, NO FURNITURE, was dark and was shared with chickens and what ever else crept in through the many open spaces.)

And the day rolls on……when we returned home I found my little secretary was hot with malaria. ( My secretary is a little girl of 3 ½ years named Caroline. She follows me around and I give her a pad and pen like mine. She’s the granddaughter of Krisi.) She was miserable, hot and threw up. I kept asking about medicine and no one would give me a straight answer. I asked about taking her to the clinic but got a thousand different reasons why it wouldn’t work. I offered to ride her and her mother on the back of the bike and got another million excuses. I can’t figure this out. I don’t care about my program for tomorrow and told them Caroline was our top job. I think we’re going to take her on the bike at 6am. I heard so many stories and plans it was amazing. One plan was that I take her alone the 6 kilometer journey through a zillion villages but I am no good with directions even with a map so that was out. How strange would that be – a white woman showing up with Caroline – where’s the mother? (I haven’t seen another white person in any of the villages. There was someone here a few years ago who they still talk about) I’m in my net for the night and still don’t know what the plan is. I’m really confused or is malaria just like the scorpion bite? Just ‘suck it up’, as Jack says.

So, lessons learned: I am definitely not the tough one here just more confused.

Hope you’re well and happy…….xxxxxooooooo and counting our good fortunes?!