For those of you haven’t heard, I have returned to
Tanzania. I left Winnipeg with 190lbs
of sports equipment and other goodies on March 11th and arrived safe
and sound 44 hours later.
And like an ever-faithful, never-wavering, abusive boyfriend,
Tanzania has once again welcomed me with open arms only to kick the absolute
CRAP out of me!!
For those of you who have been following my African
adventures for the last 8 years, I’m sure you’re as tired of hearing my tales
of misadventure as I am of living them, but since I can’t seem to find a way to
stop living them, you might as well keep hearing about them!! :) I assure you, it’s
must less painful to read it than to live it so consider yourself lucky :)
So, like I said, I arrived on Wednesday after a completely
uneventful 44 hours of travel. I arrived
at 400am and was greeted by Tabitha, Victor (her son), my good friend Uncle Moshi and of
course the PLUS 40C heat (sorry for all of you back in Winnipeg, I hear my
send-off was followed by yet another cold snap and -30C temperatures! If I makes
you feel better, we’re probably both as equally uncomfortable :)
Tabitha, Victor (her son) and I headed out to
Zanzibar for a short holiday. Tabitha
and Victor have been working incredibly hard and I think we all needed a brain
break. We got out to Zanzibar, enjoyed
the sites of Stone Town and then headed out to the beach. The problems started on Monday night and
culminated with me, once confirming that my insurance had gone through, making
the decision to hop on a 12-seater plane to fly to Dar to get to myself to some
quality medical attention. Yup- that’s my welcome back to Tanzania
story!! Gotta love!!!
The details are less exciting but basically, from what I
have concluded, a mango came in contact with the pineapple that I ate on Monday
or Tuesday. That led to minor swelling
my face on Wednesday morning… which was way better than last year when I inadvertently
drank juice with mango in it and my WHOLE face swelled and resulted in my
hiding out for a week until I regained a defined mouth, nose, and eyes. This time was minor in comparison!
However, the fun didn't stop there! Tuesday night, I ate octopus soup, which
I was not concerned about since I had eaten octopus more than once during my
nights of selling street food in
Zanzibar in 2009. I’m not certain it was
the octopus, but by Wednesday morning, my arms broke out in hives… and then by
Thursday, the hives had multiplied to my back, front, and my legs and began
turning from hives to welts to juicy blisters!! (If this is the first email of mine
you’re reading, I apologize for the details, for those that have been following
along for years, I know a reference to juicy blisters is minor in comparison to
other stories I’ve shared with you!)
So, that was Thursday. With the help of my personal pharmacist, my
sister Tracy, I did a little self-medicating.
I even used an epi-pen for the first time! By Friday morning, with two
sleepless nights and the high percentage of my body covered in welts and
blistered, it became pretty unbearable and was enough to convince me that this
may have rapidly progressed beyond a typical allergic reaction so I made my way
to the doctor. It was much better than
my last Zanzibar hospital visit (highlights of that experience-which can be
found on the blog, include being told that the blood in my vomit wasn’t “too
much”, being told my hair was ugly by my Russian doctor and then eventually
being airlifted to Kenya). This time I
got a shot of hydrocotizone and a variety of prescriptions and then sent on my
way. By noon, I had decided I had tapped
out the medical expertise in Zanzibar and decided to hop a last minute plane to
Dar. A quick twenty minute flight over
the ocean got me to Dar where my wonderful friend Uncle Moshi met me at the
airport and despite the crazy Dar traffic, had me at the hospital in less than
45 minutes. The hospital was great and
most importantly had air conditioning! I
got a full blood test that confirmed my allergy and newly acquired infection! :)
I got some more steroids (I can feel myself getting buffer!), got some antibiotics,
found a hotel with AC and waited it out!!
It's now been 10 days since the incident. The welts hav subsided and the crazy itchiness has mostly stopped!! I can assure you it was not an enjoyable 10 days!! My skin is still showing the scars but hopefully that will disappear soon.
So, that’s been my first couple weeks here! Hopefully entertaining as
always! I'm back in Mwanza now. We're in the planning stages and will have lots of exciting updates for you soon! On Monday, I'm heading to Rwanda to coordinate logistics for the Edinburgh volunteers that will be coming to work on the nursery school in May.
I hope everyone is doing well!!!
Take care!!!
Take care!!!
Amazingamandabackintanzania
