Happy new year everyone!
Well, a few things have changed since the last post. I got very sick in November and by the end of the month had to make a heartwrenching decision. I had planned on extending my visa three more months however my body made other plans. I lost 50 pounds in about 60 days due to illness. As I lay awake in bed one night feeling dreadfully awful from my second go round with Malaria, starving, completely dehydrated, weak, nauseous, and with a pounding headache, fever and chills, I prayed to God and asked Him what I should do?
First let me say, for the sake of anyone reading this who is considering long-term missionary work, Africa is not for the faint of heart. Its tough. Its a different way of living than an average convenient, neat and tidy western life. Its difficult. You may think you're healthy, strong (mentally and physically) and capable, like I did but it will challenge you. It will change you. And hopefully like me, you will fall in love with it and still want to be there!
Food there is not like what you're used to. Just about everyone can alter their diet for a short amount of time. It can even be exciting to try new things and eat like the locals. For awhile. There is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables in Uganda and they're reasonably priced. Pineapples are $1 each. About twenty tomatoes are $1 as well. Meat and chicken are available. Pork is $2.50/kg and beef $3.50/kg. Supermarkes have pasta, crackers, cereal and even some canned goods like tomato paste and jarred goods like jam. If you have a fridge to store it there's boxed milk and even yogurt.
I didn't have a refrigerator or oven ( I was planning to buy them soon if I had stayed), but I was eating healthy for the first time in my life! Dinner could be greens cooked up on a hot plate or over a charcoal stove with peppers, tomatoes and onions served over rice. Or beans with rice or posho (corn flour mixed into boiling water to make a thick paste-like consistency). Beans are good for ya right? We learn that in our food pyramid in third grade. I'd have meat mixed with veggies. Sweet potatoes. Eggplant. Pumpkin."Vegetables are good for ya, eat more of those". Despite seeing meat hanging outside in the hot sunshine, I was game to try it. I just cooked it so long it was unidentifiable.
I wasn't starting the day with a huge cup of java with 3 Splendas and more half n half than coffee. My arteries must have been thanking me. Hot tea with a little sugar. Breakfast was pineapple and a banana. An orange. Fruits are at the top of the pyramid too! No eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast first thing in the morning for me. Though eggs are there but they're brown with whitish-yellow yolks and right from the chicken, no processing plants here to check, sort and clean them.
But boy, I was doing good! Between my great diet and lots of walking the red-dirt-hilly roads, I was losing weight and feeling and looking great!...... For about a month. That's when the digestive problems started. That's when the first Malaria hit.That's when the weight lost sped up to almost a pound a DAY. That's when hunger pains started. That's when I couldn't eat like a local anymore. That's when I started dreaming about food. My food. Western style food.What I was missing like milk and cheese. Tim Horton's mocha latte. Burgers. Fries. Casseroles. Gravy. Nothing at all with a vegetable in it! I layed awake night after night playing the game in my head called "if I could eat anything I wanted right now what would it be". I think its how I survived.
So after days and days of malaria, starvation and now laying in bed unable to take much more, I asked God what to do. My plane was due to leave in nine days. He clearly told me "go home". The next morning I was lying in a clinic bed on IV fluids and the next day after that my B/P was only 80/40. I. Was. So. Sick. After more malaria treatments, antibiotics and steroids for an upper respiratory infection, pain medicine for the headache and fever, more IV fluids and lots of iron to replenish my nearly nonexistent red blood cells, I started a slow recovery to get myself able to fly 26 hours home. I made it. I survived Africa.
Let me say this: Since being home, and even before I left, we formulated a plan that when I return, we will have a refrigerator and I will be bringing back American food with me. I will be supplementing my unhealthy but familiar foods with the super healthy pyramid chart/Ugandan foods. After I get dewormed and deparasited I will maybe think about eating meat there. Maybe stick to canned meat only. Live and learn. That's why too I needed to come back to the U.S. To reflect on what I just lived through and how to manage life in Africa more efficiently. I AM going back there! I'm regaining my courage, resting up, getting strong again, mentally regrouping, and thinking up new strategies for moving Many Mansions of Christ International forward in 2014!
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