Cipro time

Yesterday I was so sick that I did not write a blog entry, so I am writing it today. Let me just describe the scene of yesterday and I think it will convey how I was feeling.

Me: swaddled in damp kangas and handkerchiefs, lying in bed under my half-open mosquito net, an empty bucket beside me.

Things in bed with me: thermometer, two phones, ripped-open packets of various meds, my Swahili phrase book that has medical phrases, my solar lantern.

When I got home from Swahili class and realized I felt especially awful, I took my temperature and it read 103.8F. What!

If you are in Africa and don't feel like it's the weather that's making you hot, you are probably sick.

So I called my medical officer, and after describing every last gory detail to him, he told me to start a course of Cipro, along with ibuprofen to bring my fever down.

I spent the rest of the day and night harnessing the energy of evaporation, which would of course have worked better had it been less humid.

It's actually a great feeling when you start sweating again.