wednesday, 7-8-09. Day 22

Malaria pill day!!!! I love that I only have to take these once a week.
I had the greatest dream last night about me and an old friend of mine, Elyse. We were being escorted to the mall, via the back of a police car. The dream continued with Protus suggested having icecream, Elyse and I unknowingly steeling icecream from and underground secret meeting for golden spoon, and a huge all-employee chase as Elyse and I craftily finagled our way out of the mall.
I woke up in a very silly, crafty mood today. My poor teammates had no warning- they were just immediately exposed to my silliness! I had Jan, Protus, and Judith in stitches for most of the morning. Protus was especially giddy to have been a part of my dream! I downed some toast and coffee, along with a LOT of water (As per the requirements of taking the malaria pill) and got myself ready to head to town. We made a stop at the cyber café to e-mail. I took some time to update my facebook.
We made a stop at the bank and I pulled out money for the Safari trip. That wasn’t fun- I really don’t enjoy seeing my money go down the drain. But, what am I to do? When in Kenya…
We ate at the Coffee Garden. I had my usual Samosas, Chapati, and coke. (it thrills me that they serve their soda in bottles! I think America should re-adopt this concept.)
We made it home in time to do more path ministry. I was paired up with Mark again. We walked 3-4 miles in the hot sun. I, not thinking, didn’t start drinking water until AFTER we started our walk. Thus, we had a semi-dehydrated and dizzied Heather in our midst. We hit around 13 houses today. Our guide started taking us around to houses of the church members again, and we had to stop and remind him that today was definitely the day that we were supposed to visit houses of people who didn’t attend the church. He was confused for a minute but granted us our wish anyway. We saw many people- some of whom had families that were in perfect health, and others of which had HIV, malaria, issues with drunk husbands, or who were housing 40 people on one property. There were lots of farm animals roaming around today, and we got a great view of the mountains of Uganda. Much like yesterday, the families we visited felt unprepared for our arrival. Some were excited to be visited by Mzungu’s anyway, and others were too scared to even come up to us and immediately asked us to leave. Today’s ministry was interesting indeed.
Toward the end of our path ministry, I found myself increasingly dizzy. Dr. Mark shared some of his water with me and warned me not to pass out because “he wasn’t going to be carrying me back to the compound”. He truly cares for my well being.  (Let’s say that this is the last time I will be dumb enough not to drink water before hiking under the hot Kenyan sun. )
Once I was home, I laid in my tentcot for a minute to cool down and let my body rest. I downed much more water (under the strict instruction of my friend Mark) and took a luxuriously cool shower. I’m happy to say that it’s the middle of the day, and I’m in my pajamas as I write this!
We got a special Pre-Dinner treat: Esau brought over a little girl for us to meet. We had given malaria meds to Esau. He informed us that a friend needed them and couldn’t get to the compound to pick them up. That friend happened to be this little girl, Dory. I’m guessing she’s about 8 years old. She suffered horribly from Malaria last week and is now in tip-top shape! It was very nice to meet her, she was a sweet girl.
Dinner tonight was hamburgers (cooked by Sir Mark) on white bread with a side of butter noodles. Jim was making all of his usual jokes- it seemed like there were more jokes about “bread” than usual tonight. We proceeded with our nightly story-telling around the Jiko (a jiko is this circular, charcoal thing that they use to cook food. Think of a cross between a charcoal grill and a wok.) I have to say, it was strange to be in Africa and talk about driving in the snow.
Goodnight everyone!