Goat flu!

I’m pleased to report that I am still alive... though it has been touch and go for the last few days!! I had a temperature of 38.6 which didn’t want to respond to paracetamol at one point and I feared the worst, but thankfully ibuprofen eventually got it under control! I have had a fever for the best part of three days this week, as well as a horrendous cough for five days now...and a growing fear that I was going to be responsible for introducing swine flu to the whole of Africa...however, I have met two other Muzungus this weekend who have also suffered with a similar illness (and they had it before I even arrived in the country) so I have decided that perhaps it is just goat flu after all. Apart from rough nights sleeping now because of the cough, I no longer have the raging temperature so am actually feeling a whole lot better. And Pastor Boris gave me some umuharavumba leaf to mash up and drink, or to chew on and spit out, which is supposed to cure me of the cough...so we’ll see how successful that is! It tastes very bitter on its own and tingles on your tongue, but its not so bad in a tea!

So, Pastor Boris...the story continues...literally! This morning he gave me three pieces of card. Two of them are the bible passages that apparently he was referring to last time I saw him...with questions for me to contemplate...and the third is apparently biblical references to tell me how to find a husband!! If only I could read them...his writing is almost as difficult to understand as his speech. What is perhaps more worrying however, is that he has adopted me as his daughter for some reason! He gave me the umuharavumba leaves “From a father to a daughter. You are my daughter now...” I hope my face didn’t give away my internal panic that this might mean I have to spend any more time with him!! I’m terrified that he is going to quiz me on the little cards he gave me this morning...I’d better do some research in case!

So I went to an extremely lively English service at 7.30 this morning...an unearthly hour to be out of bed at the best of times, even more unearthly when you have been awake most of the night, and even more unearthly when people are leaping around praising God in an incredibly energetic fashion when all you can think about is crawling back into bed and not moving for the rest of the day! Still, I got to meet my old friend the Bishop after the service, which is always entertaining. I didn’t head butt him this time, but I did have an unfortunate coughing fit whilst I tried to talk to him, and he ended up saying “What is Pam feeding you on?!” I remember from last time that he always blamed Pam when I was ill! He then threatened to lay hands on me...I did point out this would be extremely unwise unless he wanted to catch something. Luckily he had moved on to talk to someone else by that point and so didn’t interpret my comment as flippant!

Yesterday we went to Gisenyi (Lake Kivu) and Pam convinced me that a little swim in the lake might be therapeutic and actually I haven’t had a temperature since! We went with Sabine who is a German volunteer who has been living in Rwanda this year, and a New Zealand family who were visiting from Kigali with one lovely son and one thoroughly obnoxious son, who got whatever he wanted as long as he complained and begged loud enough for long enough. And he is nearly twelve! We were all rather hoping the kayak he insisted on hiring would capsize, or drift over the border into Congo territory but instead he came back intact having upset his little brother AND the Rwandan man who had gone out in the kayak with them to keep the peace. Thankfully I was not feeling well enough to get involved in kayaking...had a I been my usual fit self I feel sure that the older son would have talked me into going out with them, but I felt I was doing well to be on the beach at all.

Well, I must go to sleep. I am going to have stomach muscles like the incredible hulk once I’ve got rid of this cough...I shall be the envy of the pool at the Next Generation when I return to York...if the weather is still hot enough to be prancing around in a bikini!