700 pairs of shoes and a couple of elephants...

I am so sorry that I have not written for so long! Nathan's computer with the cheaper internet access has gone funny, and last week I was rather tied up looking after Pam. The day that I last wrote about, when we went to Kigali, to take Pete back to the airport, Pam woke up with a temperature and feeling dreadful. So, after we had dropped Pete at the airport, we went off to what is called the "Polyclinic" but because it was still before 7am it wasn't open. Suspecting that she had malaria, we then called in at the hospital and I was very impressed with how quickly she was seen. In fact the whole time we were there, we never saw another patient…I'm now wondering if that is because the majority of the people here can't afford the consulatation fee. Hmm…that hadn't occurred to me, and in a way I wish it hadn't, but it has now, so you can all share that thought with me. Well, anyway, Pam had blood taken and pulse and temperature, and an hour later I went and collected the results…by this time she was fading rapidly and stayed in the car. I had to fend off a doctor offering me a field full of cows for my hand in marriage (I managed to fob him off with an email address as opposed to my phone number!!) – mind you the most I'd been offered up to that point was five cows, so perhaps I should have taken more notice!! Anyway, the results showed that she didn't have malaria, and they prescribed her some codeine to take down the fever and take away the pain. By the time we had made the two hour drive home, she was very very poorly, so I put her to bed and stayed in the house, praying that she didn't die in her sleep! I think I woke her up to bathe her down with cold water a couple of times – because her temperature came up to 39 degrees when the codeine wore off!! Through the night we were probably up roughly every hour…I kept creeping in to check that she was still breathing…I texted Grandma to check that if your temperature rose dramatically you would actually wake up, as opposed to just expiring and she said I would notice her sleeping "fitfully" before that happened! I was actually quite relieved that if necessary I can sleep lightly – because normally I can sleep through a herd of pink elephants having an aerobics class in the bathroom – I now feel it might actually be safe for me to have babies and wake up if they cry in the night! Anyway, so we spent a lot of the night awake, and a lot of the next day asleep, and she wasn't really much better by the day after that, so we went to a local clinic to get tests for typhoid. Now, that was another experience. For those of you from Woodlands reading – you can imagine how surprised I was to see them using a catheter as a tourniquet round her arm to take blood. In fact Nathan sent me out of the room because I was laughing so much! They did all sorts of tests in this place, with a small microscope and a bright light, and a whirring thing that he had to wind manually to separate the blood…and everything without a sink!! Neither the man carrying out the tests, nor the doctor can wash their hands at all during the day! Nathan who has a degree in environmental health pointed out to the tester man that this wasn't really good enough, while Pam and I sat outside, waiting to be told eventually by the doctor that it wasn't typhoid – thank goodness – but a bacterial infection. So for the last week I have been giving her two pink tablets three times a day, and two white ones twice a day…perhaps I will go and do my nursing training after all…

Tracy had also moved in with us, after the first night, because our Tremma house (as it is now called) was a bit empty with me being away and my space was gradually being filled with fanged spiders (though thankfully not my bed, because I left the mosquito net down!) I have really enjoyed staying at Pam's house, especially when she began to improve and I was less worried about her chances of survival! However, all good things must come to an end, and I think Samuel (Pam's house-help) is probably quite glad that I have moved out and taken my pants with me.
Usually once a week Tracy and I make pants stew, and leave it marinading in hot water overnight, with soap seasoning…and you'd be amazed at the delicious result created by morning!

To conclude this entry - I never want to see another pair of shoes, ever, ever again! Yesterday we spent ALL DAY fitting trainers on the Sonrise school children. It turned out that not many of the measurements which people had laboriously taken about a month ago, bore any relation to the shoes that were in front of us, due to a stange combination of US sizes, UK sizes and Japanese sizes (which I can tell you are a law unto themselves!) We had spent the entire day, the day before laying out these shoes in pairs, and lacing them…to the extent that our fingers hurt from lacing! And the smell… well, 700 pairs of shoes do not smell good – I can tell you! We laid them out in the chapel and the entire place reeked within minutes…a sort of chemical smell – perhaps water-proofing spray or something on them, which was soon all over our hands. I'm actually wondering if it had side effects when breathed too deep…yesterday was certainly the only day that I have seen a herd pink elephants doing aerobics in the chapel bathroom…an uncanny experience, though not one I slept through…

One last thing…I think I told you that my laptop died, but there is another one coming out for me with the men in exactly a week (big big cheer!) It will be incredibly useful – some day I shall tell you about the website I'm creating, but for now I must sign off. If anyone wants to write me an email, I should be able to check it on my very own computer sometime next week! Hurray!