So, This is What Hell Feels Like...

They said it's not a matter of if I'll get sick, it's a matter of how often and how severe. Well, I had my first experience. (Note from Lacee: I'll just put the whole email in here so Dal can describe it)


I woke up Wednesday morning and it felt like someone had started a fire in my throat. I could barely even swallow anything without feeling like I was going to die. I pretty much just spent all day Wednesday in bed with a gnarly fever and going from super hot to super cold. Then Wednesday night I started dry heaving because the only thing I was pretty much putting in my mouth was water, so I had nothing to throw up. All Wednesday night I honestly thought I was in the seventh circle of hell, my whole body felt like it was just seconds from shutting down completely.

Then Anthony called me Thursday morning to check up on how I was feeling and I said, “dude get me to a hospital”. So Buffalo knew this guy who works for the sheriff of all of Kinango district and he has a car that can avoid traffic completely by driving on the shoulder of the road and no one can stop him cause it is a government car. So this dude comes and picks me up and Buffalo and Chief Tuku road with me.

The traffic was soooo bad because it had been raining all the night before so this dude just starts four wheeling through the shoulder like it’s not even a problem. The shoulder is basically just like dirt road and potholes everywhere, so I’m just getting tossed all around inside this car, dry heaving like every twenty minutes. We finally got to Mombasa like an hour and a half later and they take me straight to the emergency room which I don’t know why because it wasn’t an emergency, but I guess since I’m white or something. It is a way nice hospital too, I thought for a minute I was back in the US.

So they started taking my blood pressure and all this crap and then this Arab looking guy came in and said he is my doctor and I’m like, “dude don’t stab me with a syringe or anything”. So he asks my symptoms and everything and I thought for sure I had malaria, even Anthony and Buffalo thought so too. But he said, no it can’t be malaria if you are taking your malaria medicine every day. So he checked out my throat and said he thinks that is the problem but he wants to be sure, so he wants to take a blood test.

All the sudden he just grabs my hand and jabs this needle into the top part and you know how I am with needles, I am out like a light. When I finally came to I had an IV hooked up to me and I was soaked with sweat. He came back and said that there is no malaria it’s just a bacterial infection in my throat. I was so stoked! I thought for sure it was malaria.

So he gave me a couple injections in my IV to stop the throwing up and stop the fever and a whole list of antibiotics we had to go buy from the hospital pharmacy. Luckily we were only there for a couple hours and Anthony thought for sure they would admit me. Then on the way back to KCC we stopped by the little shop Buffalo owns and he asked me if I wanted a sprite or something and I was like dude hook me up! That was the best thing I had ever tasted. So all in all yesterday the only thing I ate was a couple spoonfuls of beans and that sprite. I woke up today and I feel so much better than yesterday. I’m still not completely better, but there is a huge improvement for sure. I’m telling you this story only on one condition though, you can’t freak out! (mom) because I promise you everything is fine. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I get every hour from Chief Tuku, Buffalo, Anthony and Chakaya all making sure I am ok, it’s getting so annoying! Even Baba Chengo came to Mnyenzeni last night because he hasn’t seen us in Dzivani all week so he was worried, such a champ he is. So everything is totally cool now, I promise!

The Arrival of Mutuwa

The other day these two ladies came walking by and started talking to Anthony in Duruma so I had no idea what they were saying. So he turned to me and said these ladies have a monkey that they want to donate to the school what do you think. I told him heck yea get that monkey here right now. So we build a monkey cage behind the KCC with wood from the kitchen we tore down and the next day they brought my new sidekick. His name is Mutuwa and I'm so psyched! I've always dreamed of having a monkey. They said that he'll ride on my motorcycle but I'm not so sure about that. Right now I have to keep him on a leash all the time so he won't run off and he doesn't like it. We're getting used to each other, he bites me when he gets mad at me and I smack him when I get mad at him. It's gonna be fun to have a sidekick.

The Kitchen Construction at the KCC

Last year sometime a big storm destroyed the kitchen at the Koins Community Center. That's a big problem because they prepare food for and serve hundreds of students and adults here everyday. Since we are mostly done with the Austin Frampton school one of our new projects is to rebuild the kitchen. Since it's the rainy season we have to work hard and fast whenever the weather gives us a chance. Like the school, we started by digging the footings. Right after we got done digging it rained harder than I've ever seen so we spent a few hours getting the water out of the trenches.
Once we got all the water out we could pour the concrete and start to build the walls with the blocks we made. When I first got here I would wear my Vans to the construction site. I guess I've adopted their sense of work clothes now, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem".

After we got the foundation done, it was time for the floor. We did it the same way as the school, we cover the whole area with big rocks, which we then pound into gravel with a sledge hammer. Once we've done that we pour cement over the whole thing, it mixes with the gravel and makes a super strong floor.




We have to take advantage of the breaks in the rain which means sometimes we work late into the night.