We had an early start to a friday morning on outreach as the team headed off to hike up a mountain. KC and I the typhoid twins at the time decided to go with Paul and a few others to distribute mozquito nets in a near by village instead. Ten minutes into the ride we heard a loud bang which Kyle explained later that he thought it was a gun shot, followed by loud clanking. Something had happened to the land rover. We waited int eh car in the middle of the road watching herds of cows and moter bikes dodge us, while Paul caught a piki back to town in search for a mechanic.
Before the truck was patched up enough to drive we were able to eat all the popcorn intended for snack, hike down a dirt road which seemed alot longer than it probably was in my exhausted state adn drink 1/2 L of soda all before 9am.
We managed to distribute the nets and get back to Homa Bay without any more hiccups.
We arrived back and headed straight out for lunch at an indian man’s house who some of the team had met earlier int he week. On our way a man called us over and when we didn’t come he threatened to beat us with fises. We crossed the road quickly not quite sure what he had said. I thought he had threatened to beat us with feces but apparently he said fishes.
We arrived for lunch and were greeted by an elderly indian mama who welcomed us with a hug and a pat on the cheek and then out of nowhere ‘pow’ she slapped me, in shock with what just happened I stood in awe as she took on her next victum, the innocent cheek pat as she smiled and then finished off with a harsh slap to the cheek.
We sat outside as we waited for lunch and as I looked up I noticed two goat leg stubs hanging fomr the tree opposite me and below them the head; apparently we were having goat for lunch. As I sat trying to avoud mama and looking at the severed head on the ground I started to rebraid one of the two french braids I was wearing; when mama came and took over, when she was finished I had two unusually placed braids that she fashioned into a loop to on half of my head to accompany my french braid on the other. The rest of lunch was interesting, I was slapped a couple more times as she stood and watched me eat and said I didn’t have enough food so snatched my plate form my lap and added tons more. Peopel started scoffing down the food so they could get rid of their plates before she added more, some cleverly stood up as she approached them and pretended to add more food themselves, others like me weren’t so fortunate and were made to eat 3 or 4 times more than they wanted.
Kyle, Jess and I were able to sneak away early to find the clinic as Jess wasn’t feeling well. After a little confusion we found the clinic but no doctor. We went to the bar next door and were told that he was at a sports event at the hight school. Now we had to decide, do we go on a wild goose chase to find a doctor that only I knew what he looked like or do we brave the lines at the public hospital. 100% sure that I would recognize the doctor we decided to chance the school. We gound the school and as we entered the gate I asked God to help me to find him as I ws feeling the pressure of being the only one who would recognize the doctor. We were directed to the field at the back of the school, where we were dismayed to find over 1000 people. How in the world were we going to find the doctor in this craziness? As I stood on the side of the field serveying the crowd and feeling hte emense impossibility of the situation, I could hear Jess telling Kyle that it was pointless and we should just go to the hospital. I turned to my left and suddenly I spotted him walking away from us off in the distance. I took off running as I yelled for Kyle to follow me. I ignored the laughs and comments as the mzungu ran down the field, I was too overtaken by amazement and relief that I found him. It was so God! It was a really cool moment, feeling so defeated and helpless and suddenly turning and God showing me him out of the entire crowd.
We went back to the clinic and Jess was tested and discovered she had typhoid, so we went back to the house and took it easy after our crazy day in africa.
Quick summary: thought we were being shot at, ate tonz of popcorn and drank 1/2 L of soda, then threatened to be beaen by feces, slapped around by an indian mama while looking at a goats legs and head and finding a doctor in a crowd of over 1000, then finding out a team member has typhoid with you!
